Study
c. 1893
Medium
Charcoal, with colored crayons, on tan wove paper
Dimensions
50.9 × 34.8 cm (20 1/16 × 13 3/4 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
15776
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Here Lautrec depicted his favorite printmaker, Père Cotelle, pulling on the lever of the star wheel, which moved the lithographic stone through the press. Over sketched lines, Lautrec determined the exact placement of the machine and its operator, simplifying their forms in the process. Set at a dynamic angle to the viewer, these elements would help draw attention to the figure of Jane Avril in the finished image.
About the Artist
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · 1864–1901
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (1864-1901) was a French Post-Impressionist painter, printmaker, and illustrator whose innovative poster designs revolutionized graphic art and advertising in late 19th-century Paris. Born into an aristocratic family at Albi in southern France, Toulouse-Lautrec's privileged lineage traced back to the Counts of Toulouse and extended uninterrupted to th...