Wisdom
1893, printed and published 1927
Medium
Color lithograph on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 25.7 × 18.8 cm (10 1/8 × 7 7/16 in.); Sheet: 32.4 × 25.1 cm (12 13/16 × 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
135914
Art Historical Context
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a leading French Post-Impressionist, created this color lithograph titled *Wisdom* in 189. Celebrated for his lively portrayals of Parisian nightlife and society, he brought a distinctive energy to printmaking through bold lines, flattened forms, and a keen eye for modern urban scenes. This impression, printed and published in 1927 on cream wove paper, demonstrates how his graphic works continued to circulate and influence viewers long after his death. Lithography, a process using greasy drawings on stone or plates to produce multiples with oil-based inks, was centr...
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...