“At the Moulin Rouge”
“At the Moulin Rouge” is an oil on canvas painting by the French Post-Impressionism artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was made between 1892 and 1895.
The Moulin Rouge was a cabaret that opened in 1889 at the foot of Montmartre hill in Paris. It was established as a venue where people from all walks of life could mingle together. It became famous as the birthplace of the modern can-can dance. Lautrec spent his time frequenting this and other less reputable places. He chose nightlife scenes and the people of these places as the subject for most of his work.
In this painting, Toulouse-Lautrec painted a scene at the Moulin Rouge filled with his friends, well-known dancers, artists, and businessmen of Montmartre. The well-known dancer, Jane Avril, is depicted in the center of the painting. Her head is turned away from us, showing only her gorgeous head of red hair. Another famous dancer, La Goulue, is seen standing and adjusting her hair in the background. The singer, May Milton, is seen in the foreground on the far right. Her face is contrasted with green and white yielding a ghostly appearance. Toulouse-Lautrec even painted himself in the center background, walking with his cousin, the doctor Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran.
Interestingly, the right part of the canvas had originally been trimmed from the original painting to remove the rightmost figure, May Milton. The reason for the initial canvas trim is not known, but by 1914, the original canvas had been reattached.
Lautrec’s paintings have a vivaciousness about them that transports the viewers to the scene. One of his many talents is capturing fleeting moments. The Moulin Rouge in 1892 was a very special place, and the world is luckier for having Toulouse-Lautrec around to have painted it.
“At the Moulin Rouge” is currently on loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis from the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States.
For more on Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
