Word: lautrecs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a bitter, boisterous, grotesquely misshapen mite of a man. He spent the best of his 37 years pattering up & down the steep streets of Montmartre, tippling in its gayest bistros and teetering on the edge of artistic fame. Half a century ago, liquor laid him by the heels. Last week, some of the work he managed between benders was on exhibition at two Paris galleries; a fictional biography of him, Moulin Rouge, was on U.S. bestseller lists; and the Baltimore Museum of Art had just staged a comprehensive show of his posters. Keeping step with...
Much of Toulouse-Lautrec's popularity stems from his frothy subject matter. He pictured a devil-may-care world of generous bosoms and high kicks, a world that is gone but kindly remembered. The man was a genius besides. His line had all the energy of a high kick, his wit surpassed his exuberance, his knowledge of the human figure equaled his delight in it, and his touch was light as lace. He designed as well as the Japanese woodcut artists whom he most admired, and for their warm-milk sentimentality he substituted an absinthe bite...
...draftsman, Pascin employed the sfumato (blurring of lines) dear to Da Vinci. His models were not so much outlined as enmeshed in delicate, shifting parentheses. Being no great shakes as a colorist, he avoided strong hues, tinted his figures with light dabs of pearly paint. No other artist, except Lautrec, ever mixed sweetness and sordidness more successfully. What kept Pascin out of Lautrec's league was that he had no bite; his paintings were pale and flaccid as the man himself...
Paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Gaugin, Manet, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec are included in the gift. Sculptures by Despiau and Maillol, and drawings by Guys, Matisse, Picasso, and Renoir also are listed in the bequest...
...life's seamy edges, Renoir doted on what was pretty, could see no reason for painting the drab and bizarre. Even Montmartre's famous dance hall, Le Moulin de la Galette, he peopled with gay, attractive couples instead of the garishly lit libertines and doxies of Toulouse-Lautrec. The landscapes and floral pieces which Renoir did for "mental relaxation" glowed with the pure bright colors which he confidently splashed onto his canvases without even bothering to mix on his palette...