26. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
(1864-1901)
Aux Variétés : Mlle. Lender et Brasseur

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Toulouse-Lautrec: Aux Variétés

Aux Variétés : Mlle. Lender et Brasseur

Lithograph, 1893, 280 x 255 mm., Delteil 41, Adhèmar 44, Wittrock 31 iii/iii, signed in pencil. Wittrock records only four known impressions of this state (to which this must be added as a fifth), two in olive green, two in black, all but one unsigned, all in public collections. This, then, is one of two known pencil-signed impressions, the only one in private hands, on simili-japon and with the Kleinmann blind stamp (Lugt 1573), large, full margins and the impress of the lithographic stone visible in places. The Variétés was, and still is, a popular theater on the Boulevard de Montmartre. Marcelle Lender (1862-1926), singer, dancer and actress was a theatrical object of fascination for Lautrec, who portrayed her extensively in paintings and prints. He had no interest in her personally and she loathed him, which makes it all the more odd that her immortality rests almost entirely upon his depictions. The scene represented here is probably from Madame Satan, in which Lender appeared in 1893.