Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre is an exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, I visited almost 2 weeks ago with two friends when we travelled by train, ate at a restaurant and looked round the gallery. With the restrictions imposed by the dramatic spread of the Coronavirus, none of these things are now possible. I think it's worth saying that I'm very pleased I visited the exhibition while I could do so, and so sorry not to have visited The Holbourne and seen the Grayson Perry exhibition where a perfume bottle is on loan from Swindon MAG.
This is what the Victoria Art Gallery says about the exhibition:
'Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre will bring the sights and sounds of Lautrec’s thrilling Bohemian Paris to life. The exhibition will revisit the ‘street art’ of the era showcasing over 80 works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Steinlen and more.
Evening events unique to this exhibition will echo the joie de vivre of the Belle Époque and Toulouse-Lautrec's Paris. These will feature music and entertainment to celebrate how visual art, music and dance were intertwined in this thrilling era. The Gallery will give everyone the chance to participate, with a multilingual audio guide, music from the era and a display of personal items from the performers'.
There's a lot of fascinating information about Toulouse-Lautrec on panels in the exhibition, but the Wikipedia entry also gives lots of information about his disability and his eventful life crammed into 37 years.
Many of the 80 works are very well known, what I hadn't appreciated was how many other artists were also involved in producing street art at this time. I think Divan Japonaise is my favourite Toulouse-Lautrec poster:
It gives us a glimpse of the evening, and was created to advertise a cafe-chantant, literally singing cafe, that was at the time known as Divan Japonaise. The poster depicts three people from Monmartre, the dancer Jane Avril in the audienc, beside her is writer Edouard Dujardin. They are watching a performance by Yvette Guilbert recognisable by her tall, thin frame and long black gloves.
Below this is also a very well known image of Bruant facing left and right:
Apparently Bruant was renowned for his coarse songs addressing the hardships of the working classes becoming known as 'the peoples' singer' . When the Chat Noir cabaret moved, Bruant took over the building.
Steinlen’s iconic poster, “La tournée du Chat Noir avec Rodolphe Salis very successfully advertised Le Chat Noir cabaret. One of the cleverest moves Salis made was to commission the Art Nouveau artist to design a sign and posters for the cabaret. Finding a stray black cat during the renovation of the site, Salis hit upon the name and the scraggy feline became the perfect emblem for wild and edgy cabaret nightlife.
This glorious poster below advertises a brand of cigarette papers, and is by Alphonse Mucha, there's a great piece on him from the Walker Art Gallery, where he is described as the 'Godfather of Art Nouveau.
This poster advertising Comiot motorcycles including the problems of traffic in the shape of geese is another really well known poster, produced in 1899, also produced by Steinlen. The woman depicted appears to be riding a bicycle rather than a motorcycle.
and how about this poster advertising a laxative? produced by Jules Cheret.
And finally two more posters, this one advertising Palais de Glace
and this one by Jules Cheret
It's a shame you can't see this exhibition, but if you click here, you can see one of the walls in the gallery.
This is what the Victoria Art Gallery says about the exhibition:
'Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre will bring the sights and sounds of Lautrec’s thrilling Bohemian Paris to life. The exhibition will revisit the ‘street art’ of the era showcasing over 80 works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Steinlen and more.
Evening events unique to this exhibition will echo the joie de vivre of the Belle Époque and Toulouse-Lautrec's Paris. These will feature music and entertainment to celebrate how visual art, music and dance were intertwined in this thrilling era. The Gallery will give everyone the chance to participate, with a multilingual audio guide, music from the era and a display of personal items from the performers'.
There's a lot of fascinating information about Toulouse-Lautrec on panels in the exhibition, but the Wikipedia entry also gives lots of information about his disability and his eventful life crammed into 37 years.
Below this is also a very well known image of Bruant facing left and right:
Steinlen’s iconic poster, “La tournée du Chat Noir avec Rodolphe Salis very successfully advertised Le Chat Noir cabaret. One of the cleverest moves Salis made was to commission the Art Nouveau artist to design a sign and posters for the cabaret. Finding a stray black cat during the renovation of the site, Salis hit upon the name and the scraggy feline became the perfect emblem for wild and edgy cabaret nightlife.
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