Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in Chilpéric , 1895-1896 Oil on canvas. Gift (Partial and Promised) of Betsey Cushing Whitney in Honor of John Hay Whitney, for the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art.1990.127.1 (Dortu P. 627)
Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was and remains a remarkable paradox. Scion of an ancient
aristocratic family, he spent his adult life among the common people of Paris and
Montmartre, even taking rooms in a brothel, and he made the city's seamy night life,
cafés, cabarets, dance halls, and theater the principal subject of his art. In the
1860s during the renovation of Paris, Baron Haussmann's razing of the slums had
marginalized Montmartre, which became established by the 1890s as an enclave famous for
its naughty nightly revelry; the community flourished with the tourist trade attracted by
advertisements in the popular press and by eye-catching posters. Lautrec's painting
Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric" (fig. 1)
"chronicles the spirit, style, and spectacle of the nineties, and underscores
Lautrec's fascination with the ambiguous boundaries between art and artifice and between
'high' and 'low' art." 1 This work, along with his related paintings, drawings,
and lithographs, embodies the artist's ultimately egalitarian vision of life and
art.
Lautrec became intensely involved with the theater through the drama
critic Romain Coolus, with whom he worked at the avant-garde magazine La Revue Blanche
. 2 Lautrec's interest in theater also had its roots in his association with the Nabis
artists, whom he had met as a student in the 1880s. The Nabis (from the Hebrew word for
"prophet") included Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Félix Vallotton,
and their nonnaturalistic works featured asymmetrical surface patterns and a restricted
range of color. Lautrec collaborated with them in productions at the most innovative
theaters in Paris, designing posters, theater programs, scenery, and costumes. He also
desig ned sets for the January 1895 production of an obscure Hindu drama, Le Chariot
de Terre cuite , at the Théâtre de l'OEuvre. About 1896 the Nabis
and Lautrec gradually dissociated themselves from avant-garde theatrical
productions. Unlike the Nabis, however, Lautrec continued to respond to the gaudy allure
of the popular stage. Lautrec deliberately d istanced himself from the obscure effects
and allusive, recondite meanings of the Nabis. Living with the extremes of the social
spectrum, he addressed his art to the broader public, intending that his work be accessible
to all--direct, vividly characterize d, and immediately appealing.
"Chilpéric"
Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in
"Chilpéric," one of Lautrec's largest paintings, is the most monumental
and important of his theatrical subjects. In it he conveys the artificial glamour of the
stage and the sultry energy of the performers, especially the singer-dancer Marcelle
Lender. This painting is the fullest expression of his interest in the theater,
which, along with the informal theatrics of the Montmartre dance halls, occupied Lautrec's
life and art during the 1890s.
Between 1 February and 1 May 1895 the
Théâtre des Variétés in Paris presented a sensational revival of
the operetta Chilpéric . The production's array of musical stars and
extravagant scenery and costumes made it an overnight hit. Although heralded in the press
at the time, the farcical operetta is virtually forgotten today; its most vivid reminders
come from Lautrec, a keen obse rver of Parisian nightlife, who was so enthralled by the
spectacle that he attended numerous performances. Watching intently from the audience, he
sketched the faces and movements of the performers in notebooks he habitually
carried. Those thumbnail sketch es became the basis for his lithographs of the stage
and performers later that year and for two paintings of 1896, one focusing on Marcelle
Lender and the other depicting a grandiose vision of her performance.
When
Chilpéric was originally presented in Paris almost two decades earlier, in
October 1868, it was called an " opéra bouffe ," or musical farce, by
Hervé, who had composed both music and libretto. 3 Hervé and Jacques
Offenbach, among the earliest exponents of the evolving theatrical form now known as
operetta, were chiefly responsible for developing the genre into an immensely popular
entertainment during the mid-nineteenth century. Hervé was often h is own producer
and a leading performer in his operettas; he directed the original production of
Chilpéric at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatique in Paris and sang the
title role.
Hervé took the subject of his operetta from early French
history. According to nineteenth-century historians, Chilpéric was king of the
Franks from 561 to 584, a soldier king who warred with his brothers over the division of
their father's kingdom. To bols ter his claim, Chilpéric allied himself with the
Visigoths in Spain by marrying the princess Galswinthe. His goals attained, he conspired
with his mistress Frédégonde to murder Galswinthe. 4 In
Hervé's hands this gory political account became a rollicking farce. Tailoring
national history not to heroic, inspiring epic but to burlesque, he satirized grand
opera, especially the work of Richard Wagner. Caricatures of grandiose operatic melodies
echo throughout the score, and the concluding act of Chilpéric opens with an
extended parody of Wagner's Lohengrin .
In the first act the shepherd Landry
and his beloved Frédégonde sing of the king as they wait in a forest to
glimpse the royal hunting party. The hunt enters, headed by King Chilpéric on
horseback, accompanied by his brother Sigibert, his sister-in-law Bru nehaut, and other
courtiers. Landry and Frédégonde are discovered and brought to the king, who
admires Frédégonde and appoints her his laundress and Landry his
majordomo. They follow the procession to his palace.
As the second act opens,
we learn that Frédégonde has become the king's mistress, while Landry is
enamored of Brunehaut. Chilpéric, however, has tired of Frédégonde and
in a lively duet dismisses her in order to marry the Spanish princess Galswinthe. The k
ing's court celebrates Galswinthe's arrival with spirited song and dance, and Galswinthe
replies by performing a bolero that recounts a tale of extravagant love and despair,
conveying the flavor of her native Spain to her royal suitor and his followers (th is is
the moment depicted in the Whitney painting, with Marcelle Lender in the role
of Galswinthe). The festivities are interrupted by Frédégonde pulling a cart
piled high with her possessions and singing a plaintive ballad about the ingratitude of
kings. The lazy court physician assigned to speed her departure hops onto the cart but
upends it, strewing its contents on the ground. The king and his court, banging her pots
and pans, then perform a chaotic dance to a frenzied orchestral accompaniment.
A
nuptial duet in the royal couple's bedroom opens the third act, but affairs of state
intrude and Chilpéric departs with his entourage in a procession lighted by torches.
Galswinthe performs a fandango then retires to the marriage bed,
where Frédégonde fi nds her and triggers a trap door, casting her into the
dungeons. After rescuing Galswinthe and returning to battle, the
victorious Chilpéric pardons Frédégonde, and the operetta
concludes with an old Gallic chorus.
As historical recreations, farce
and operetta with remote settings allowed greater freedom of expression in the nineteenth
century than was possible with nearcontemporary subjects. Viewers of the original
production would have seen more in this complex plo t than its farcical content.
Hervé created daring parallels between his fictionalized ruler and France's current
monarch, Emperor Napoleon III, who, like Chilpéric, ended a relationship with a
mistress when he married a Spanish noblewoman, Eugénie de Monti jo de Guzman. 5
Before 1868 ended, the success of Hervé's comic masterpiece was recognized with
the appearance on Parisian stages of two parodies, La Chilpérichole
and Chiméric -the latter organized by Hervé himself.
Lautrec attended the 1895 revival of Chilpéric at the Théâtre des
Variétés at 7 Boulevard Montmartre, 6 where the auditorium had three
balconies rising above the orchestra section that could seat more than 1,200. The
steeply raked stage was almost as deep as the auditorium and was separated from it by a
shallow musicians' pit and a proscenium arch sufficiently wide to provide box seating on
both sides of the stage. In 1882 the Théâtre des Variétés became
the first Parisian theater equipped with electric lighting, 7 a welcome innovation
in an era when theater lights posed a serious fire hazard. The quality of the
illumination differed significantly from gaslight, producing "incomparably
soft" effects. At the Variétés the footlights became an
important component of sta ge illumination, making theater lighting more
flexible, allowing house lights to be dimmed during performances, and imparting
the distinctive green tinge evident in Lautrec's masterwork.
Fernand Samuel became
the manager of the Théâtre des Variétés in 1891, and it was
under his guidance that Hervé's operetta Chilpéric was revived in 1895.
Settings and costumes were usually minimal, so the lavishness of this production ensured
immediate critical and public attention. 8 The set for the second act was particularly
elaborate, with Chilpéric's throne placed on a large dais under a spreading
red canopy at the left and the rest of the ceremonial chamber defined by a colonnade and an
arcade opening to a lush garden at the rear . Costumes for the king and court were
pseudo-medieval in style, while Galswinthe and her retinue--including her brother in a
matador's apparel--were dressed in nineteenth-century Spanish garb. The cast, including
extras, numbered close to ninety, 9 with lead roles given to stars of the
Variétés troupe. Notices appeared just days after the premiere advising the
public that performances were sold out until mid-March. The eventual run of more than one
hundred performances was lengthy for the period.
Marcelle Lender
Lautrec was fascinated by Marcelle Lender, but the red-haired actress did not reciprocate.
She complained that he had failed to compliment her performance when he was introduced to
her backstage. 10 In fact, Lautrec's interest was in her appearance; he was
as indifferent to her stagecraft as she was to his art: "the frightful man!" she
exclaimed, "...he indeed loves me....But the painting, you can have it." 11
Lautrec first encountered Marcelle Lender in her performance of the operetta
Madame Satan , which opened at the Variétés in 1893, 12 the year he
began to attend the theater regularly. She became his subject in three lithographs: Mlle
Lender in "Madame Satan," At the Variétés: Mlle Lender
and Brasseur , and Mlle Lender and Baron . 13 Although Lautrec worked
in lithography only occasionally starting in 1891, his prints were soon prized by astute
collectors. His ability to convey the expressive features of the performers directly and
legibly using a soft line and spatter ( crachis ) technique also made his work ideal
for distribution in newspapers, magazines, and as posters.
Lautrec's next
documented encounter with Marcelle Lender was in Chilpéric . His friend Coolus
wrote an anecdotal reminiscence on the thirtieth anniversary of Lautrec's death in 1901
that is the sole eyewitness account of the artist's obsession with Lender in
Chilpéric : "...in the winter...he compelled me to accompany him twenty times
to the Théâtre des Variétés to attend performances
of Chilpéric by Hervé, which had just been revived. The beautiful Marcelle
Lender played an important role and she was dressed, or rather undressed, in such a fashion
that every muscle of her back could be scrutinized by the opera glasses. A bit tired of
hearing the f amous chorus... for the sixth time, I asked Lautrec the reason he insisted
on my regularly accompanying him to hear such obvious gush. 'I come strictly in order to
see Lender's back,' he said. 'Look at it carefully; you seldom see anything so magnificent.
Lender's back is sumptuous.' " 14 Lautrec's friend Maurice Joyant described
the artist's routine of arriving nightly at the theater at the same time and occupying the
same seat to observe and sketch Marcelle Lender's performance of the bolero. 15
"Chilpéric" Drawings
Lautrec preserved the exuberant
flavor of the song and dance in pencil drawings hastily scrawled in his notebooks. Although
more than 4,000 drawings have been catalogued from every phase of his career, most are so
loose and schematic that even works from h is theatrical notebooks are unrecognizable as
any specific individual or production, and the lack of inscriptions compounds the
difficulty. Seventeen drawings of Lender have been identified. 16 They were
not preparatory in the traditional sense, and the artist does not appear to have had a
particular project in view. Rather, like Degas, whom he admired, Lautrec created drawings
that became a repertory of images for him to consult at need.
Five drawings are
figure studies, delineating the elegance of Lender's posture, her arms poised and holding
castanets, or concentrating on her swirling skirts and legs, clad in black stockings, as
she performed the bolero. The artist had an uncanny ability to capture recognizable
characteristics in a few notations. One of these studies (fig. 2) became the
source for Lender's pose in the definitive painting Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero
in "Chilpéric." Another (fig. 3) from the same notebook is
so freely drawn that it would be nearly unrecognizable without the companion drawing. The
balance of the Lender drawings focus on her face, usually noting the effect of the
footlights. Showing Lender from varying points of view, the drawings fix Lautrec's location
in the auditorium toward the front of the orchestra section.
Lender posed in the
artist's studio when Chilpéric closed. As she recalled, "before anything
else he arranged folding screens in order to light my shoulders suitably. Then he
asked that I sing the refrain, ' Il est dix heures... ' And...he has me repeat it five
times, ten times, often more during a single sitting. Toward the end I asked, 'Don't you
want me to sing something else?' 'No, no, this couplet, I know it, and thus won't be
distracted by the words as I work, while a new re frain...' 'Do you want me to be silent?'
'Oh no! Because your singing makes your skin scintillate imperceptibly in the light,'
" an effect Lautrec was said to be studying. 17
Lautrec's most remarkable
drawing of Lender (fig. 4) was executed on a larger sheet of paper than the
others, in pencil, with blue highlights for the eyes. In this bravura drawing a multitude
of emphatic strokes in the costume and headdress echo the sensuous, curving line of
Lender's brows, lips, and neckli ne. This portrait differs significantly from the
other drawings and is unlike any of the Lender lithographs and paintings; it was surely a
result of Lender's posing in Lautrec's studio.
"Chilpéric"
Lithographs
Nine of Lautrec's lithographs depict performances of
Chilpéric , including four versions of the bust-length portrait of Marcelle Lender
published by Julius MeierGraefe in his Berlin journal, Pan , founded in 18--. 18
It would be reasonable to posit some project, perhaps a print folio, for which
Lautrec intended these works, but none has yet been discovered. None of the lithographs was
commissioned. Indeed, Lautrec was so determined to create them that he bore all the
expenses associated with their design and printing. He also executed them relatively
quickly. In May 1895 he could include the color version of the portrait bust in an
exhibition and sale at Galerie Laffitte, Paris, 19 only days after the last
performances of Chilpéric at the Théâtre des
Variétés.
Lautrec developed the color lithograph in several stages.
His signature on the lighter of two impressions of the third state, 20 a monochrome
edition, may signify his preference for its subtle nuance. The artist collaborated with his
printer, Henry Stern, and his dealer, publisher Edouard Kleinmann, 21 to produce the
final color print, a technically complex layering of eight different colored inks (fig.
5) . The color scheme is opulent, setting Lender's mass of red-orange hair against
the pink and red of her flower headdress and the yellow pattern in the background, and
emphasizing the white expanse of her cheeks and bosom, lighted from below, with a fine re
d outline describing her lips and profile. A diaphanous spatter of yellow and red creates
the orange shadow falling across Lender's forehead.
The print is a visual tour
de force that was widely distributed and lauded. One impression was trimmed for binding
into the magazine Pan and published in September 1895 with a brief appreciation of
Lautrec by critic Arsène Alexandre. 22 Pan then issued a deluxe edition
for its French subscribers. On one impression in the Rosenwald Collection the artist's
yellow-orange device stamped at the lower left and the adjacent inscribed number are
characteristic of the edition. 23
Five prints show performances of
Chilpéric : they are Entrance of Brasseur in "Chilpéric,"
Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric" (fig. 6) , Lender
Full Face in "Chilpéric," Lender from the Back Dancing the Bolero
in "Chilpéric" (fig. 7) , and Lender Bowing . 24
Disdaining informational text on prints, Lautrec depicted famous moments from the operetta,
vignettes that his contemporaries could have recognized. Entrance of Brasseur adroitly
conveys the burlesque content of the operetta. In a mock-heroic tableau the star performer
Albert Brasseur in the role of Chilpéric, has just arrived onstage, jauntily perched
astride a dispirited white nag, to the accompaniment of a troop of buff oonish soldiers,
their mouths open in song. In contrast to the broad humor of the hunting
scene, Galswinthe's bolero was a straightforward showcase for Lender, and those
four lithographs are appropriately glamorous star vehicles depicting her song and danc e.
In Lender Full Face she seems to be singing. In Lender Dancing she dances across
the front of the stage, castanets extended, and twists to look out to the audience. In
Lender from the Back the decolletage of her dress exposes her back, which Lautrec so
admired, lithely swaying to the music. Lender Bowing marks the conclusion of her
dance.
These five lithographs were probably conceived at the same time. They were
all printed by Stern in dark olive green in on good-quality, cream-colored paper, and all
were issued in limited editions. The dimensions of the images are roughly equal, and the sc
ale of the figures is generally consistent. Lautrec worked each image in similar
fashion, covering the entire surface of his lithographic stones. He used the soft tip
of the greasy drawing implement to delineate the figures, exerting varying pressure to di
minish or intensify the darks; he used its broad edge for areas of scumble, as in the
background of Lender Bowing and for the prompter's box in the lower right corner of
Lender Dancing . He used the spatter technique for the prompter's box and the
atmospheric background in Lender from the Back and made limited use of scraping,
employing a fine tool to animate some of the denser areas. In Lender Full Face , for
instance, the fine white lines that articulate Lender's lips, nostrils, eyes, and brows
were produced with a scraper.
Chilpéric closed at the
Théâtre des Variétés on Wednesday, 1 May 1895. The next night
the Variétés opened a double bill featuring the three-act Les Pantins de
Madame by Albin Valabrègue and a one-act operetta, La Chanson de Fortunio ,
with the libretto by H. Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy and score by Offenbach.
Lender starred in Fortunio with Numa Auguez, and Lautrec evinced his continuing
admiration for the actress in the lithograph Lender and Auguez in "La Chanson de
Fortunio." 25 The artist's use of white is especially remarkable here, silhouetting
Auguez against the shadowed Lender. Further lithographic depictions of Lender onstage
ensued in 1895. She shares the spotlight in Lender and Lavallière in
"Le Fils de l'Aretin" and Lender and Lavallière and appears as
a solo performer in Mlle Marcelle Lender Standing and Lender Seated . 26
Lender and Lavallière in "Le Fils de l'Aretin" is the most curious of
these lithographs. The oddness of the composition, emphasizing the black-clad
Lavallière against the faint image of Lender, has prompted the suggestion that it
may be an experimental image combining two separate designs, although th at is unlikely.
27 Lender's costume and the lighting of Lender's face and dress from below are nearly
identical to her appearance in Mlle Marcelle Lender Standing and Lender Seated .
Lautrec regarded his paintings and prints as of equal import; all were
finished works that fully express the artist's intention. Both drawn and painted
studies had preceded Lautrec's execution of earlier lithographs, but with the
Marcelle Lender works his method changed. No studies for the Chilpéric
compositions exist, and since the artist preserved so many drawings for earlier works, it
is unlikely that any were ever made for these. All are independent compositions that seem
to have emerged wholly formed from Lautrec's imagination.
"Chilpéric" Paintings
Lautrec completed two paintings of
Lender in Chilpéric in 1896, thus following the lithographs by approximately
half a year. The first of them, Mlle Marcelle Lender , 28 is more closely related
to the lithographs and was probably created earlier than the second. Its vertical format,
the figure scale, Lender's hand on hip gesture-similar to one shown in Lender Full Face
-and Lender's placement in relation to the pages in the background are all derived from
the lithographs. While the lithographs were spare compositions, the painting is a vivid,
exuberant, and sensuous description of Lender's translucent pink underskirts an d her
highlighted chin, long neck, and bosom. Lautrec shows the long slits in Lender's thin green
overskirt that allowed her the freedom of movement necessary for her bolero. Extending an
arm, Lender grasps the filmy material as she turns in the dance, in a performance
praised for its suggestive allure. Behind her Lautrec briefly indicated two pages and
other courtiers in attendance and columns of the stage set.
The painting Marcelle
Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric" (fig. 1) 29 departs
significantly from Lautrec's previous depictions of the subject. It encompasses nearly the
entire stage and all the principals except Frédégonde, who was then offstage.
Chilpéric is shown seated on his throne, flanked by his brother Sigibert and t he
Grand Légendaire on his right and by the court physician on his left. The features
of the former pair, contorted by sneezing, allude to a running joke concerning the doctor,
a quack who claimed to have discovered a cure for the common cold. The king's s
ister-in-law Brunehaut stands before the throne, and the shepherd Landry hovers behind
her. At the right and behind Galswinthe stands her brother Don Nervoso, his arms akimbo as
he ogles Lender's back with unbrotherly attentiveness. In the background two p ages,
played by women, 30 seductively imitate his pose while staring at the don from a similar
angle. At the center of the stage and the painting Marcelle Lender as Galswinthe executes
the vigorous kicks of her bolero, thrusting her long, slender feet forward alternately
while hol ding the panels of her overskirt together. Her action creates the vivid
apparition of a bright pink flower with black pistil and green outer cover resembling the
silk flowers of her headdress.
The chromatic intensity of the painting
is astonishing. Lurid pinks and reds clash with each other and contrast with somber greens
and blues. The lighter surfaces of flesh, Don Nervoso's shirt and hose, and the arcade in
the background are tinged lime gree n by the stage lights. Under such illumination and
wearing theatrical makeup, the faces around Lender have exaggerated, almost caricatured
expressions that were integral to the overstated farce being performed and depicted.
Lender's appearance, too, is a p arody, with her eyebrows soulfully lifted in feigned
yearning as she performs the bolero. Lender's scene, a tableau combining elements of farce,
burlesque, melodrama, and glamorous appeal, helped make the 1895 Chilpéric
production an overnight success.
The Legacy of "Chilpéric"
Lautrec never parted with his painting of Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in
"Chilpéric," nor was it displayed publicly during his lifetime. He kept
it when he changed studios in 1897, and it appears with him in a 1900 photograph of his
final studio. 31 If he did offer it to Lender, as has been reported, she rejected it.
Lautrec, who assiduously exhibited and sold his lithographs of Lender, kept
this quintessential image of the actress and the theater out of public view.
The
painting did appear in the background of an 1897 portrait of Henri Nocq (fig. 8) ,
a Belgian metal craftsman who was a friend of the artist. 32 In the preparatory oil
sketch for the painting 33 Nocq stands erect against a barely indicated wall. For the
finished portrait, however, Lautrec showed Nocq adjacent to the Whitney painting, which
altered the appearance of both. Nocq's posture, his feet splayed and back hunched, echoes
Don Nervoso's in t he earlier painting. The space Nocq now occupies has shifted; the
bare, sharply receding floorboards of the room imitate the tilt of a steeply raked stage.
In the portrait Lautrec also considerably revised his representation of the earlier
painting, omitti ng Lender and ceding center stage to Don Nervoso, which essentially
makes Nocq the star of both the portrait and the painting-within-a-painting.
In
1898 Lautrec's friend Maurice Joyant and his partner Michel Manzi, art dealers,
commissioned a set of five lithographs. One of them, Bust of Mlle Marcelle Lender
(fig. 9) , has been identified as Lautrec's last depiction of the performer. This
print differs from the earlier lithographs in its delicate evocation of the actress as an
individual rather than in character. The identification of the model as Lender has
been quest ioned; she has also been recognized as Jeanne Granier, another performer. 34
The women bear a striking resemblance to one another in several Lautrec prints. Both wore
similar hair styles and showy headgear, both had prominent, mobile eyebrows and eyes
slitted against the glare of the footlights, and both had sharp, pointed noses a nd chins
and long necks often accentuated by jewelry or lacework. The strongly accented nostrils and
plump lower eyelids in this lithograph point toward an identification with Marcelle Lender,
a final, poignant recollection of the actress who had inspired him.
NOTES
1. Charles S. Moffett, in Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the
50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art [exh. cat., National Gallery of Art]
(Washington, 1991), 252.
2. Götz Adriani, Toulouse-Lautrec , trans. Anne
Lemmonier and Elisabeth Kohler (Paris, 1991), 181. "Coolus" was the pseudonym of
René Weil (1868-1952). See Claire Frèches-Thory, "Toulouse-Lautrec and
the Theatre," in Toulouse-Lautrec [exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London] (Paris,
1991), 364.
3. " Hervé" was the pseudonym Louis Auguste
Joseph Florimond Ronger (1825-1892) adopted for his work in the theater. See Renée
Cariven-Galharret and Dominique Ghesquière, Hervé: un musicien paradoxal
(1825-1892) (Paris, 1992), and Jacques Rouchouse, 50 Ans de Folies Parisiennes:
Hervé (1825-1892): Le Père de l'Opérette (Luisant, 1994).
4. La Grande Encyclopédie: Inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres,
et des arts (Paris, 1886-1902), 11: 56-57.
5. Cariven-Galharret
and Ghesquière 1992, 102-103.
6. The Théâtre
des Variétés dated from 1777. See Joseph Long, Theatre in
Focus: Théâtre des Variétés (Cambridge, England, and Teaneck,
NJ, 1980).
7. The electrical engineers who accomplished this technical
breakthrough considered it so important that they published a special book: Wilfrid de
Fonvielle, L'Eclairage électrique du Théâtre des
Variétés (Paris, 1882).
8. Albin Valabrègue, "Les
Théâtres," L'Illustration (Paris, 9 February 1895), 119, described the
"staggering beauty" of the production, suggesting that "if this sensational
reprise doesn't have one hundred performances the theater will be ruined, because all its
resources have been dedicated to the splendo r of the staging." Francisque
Sargey, "Chronique 'Théâtrale," Le Temps (Paris, 4
February 1895), 1, praised the "animated and brilliant spectacle..., an orgy
of curious and fantastic costumes and amusing and magnificent processions," and noted
that, "pretty girls aren't lacking at the Variétés." Even a
journalist who panned the operetta (Adolphe Jullien, "Revue Musicale,"
Journal des Débats [Paris, 2 February 1895], evening edition, 1) complimented the
"very beautiful staging, with a large and richly costumed cast."
9.
Un Homme du monde (an anonymous, regular contributor), "Letter to the Editor,"
New York Herald (Paris, 7 February 1895), 3.
10. François Le Targat,
Toulouse-Lautrec , 2nd ed. (Paris, 1992), 30-31.
11. Alfred Simon,
Toulouse-Lautrec (Paris, 1990), as cited in Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters from
the Bibliothèque Nationale [exh. cat., Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris]
(Brisbane (?) , 1991), 128.
12. Madame Satan , an operetta by
Ernest Blum and Raoul Toché starring Lender, Albert Brasseur, and Baron, opened on
26 September 1893. See Götz Adriani, Toulouse-Lautrec: The Complete Graphic Works:
A Catalogue Raisonné: The Gerstenberg Collection [exh. cat., Royal Academy of
Arts] (London, 1988), 69.
13. The standard catalogues of Lautrec's prints are
Loÿs Delteil, H. de ToulouseLautrec (Le Peintre-graveur illustré , vols.
10-11 (Paris, 1920), and Wolfgang Wittrock, Toulouse-Lautrec: The complete prints
(London, 1985). The prints listed here are Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.351, D. 58, W. 47;
Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.341, D. 41, W. 31; and Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.343, D.
43, W. 33. Designs for the latter two were created for publication in the jour
nal L'Escarmouche, but the quality of the paper and printing of the National Gallery of
Art prints indicate that they, like the first, were made for the fine art trade.
14. Romain Coolus, "Souvenirs sur Toulouse-Lautrec," L'Amour de l'Art
12, no. 4 (April 1931), 139. The refrain of the chorus is, "Il est dix heures; c'est
l'instant; c'est l'heure où Chilpéric se lève. Esperons qu'il a fait
un rêve qui le rende heureux et content' [It's ten o'clock; it's the moment; it's
the time when Chilp éric arises. Let us hope he had a dream that makes him happy
and content]. Hervé, Chilpéric: OpéraBouffe en 3 actes & 4
tableaux (Paris, 1868), no. 8.
15. Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1864-1901: Dessins, Estampes, Affiches (Paris, 1927), 45-47. Visual evidence indicates
that the artist occupied different seats on both sides of the central aisle.
16.
The standard catalogue is M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre (New York,
1971). Drawings that can be associated with Chilpéric are Dortu D. 3118, 3725,
3765, 3767, 3803, 3810, 3812, 3813, 3814, 3815, 3829, 3874 3897, 3898, 4012, 4241,
4242, including three depictions of other performers. Three other drawings of Lender (Dortu
D. 3327, 3427, and 3766) are related to the 1893 lithog raphs.
17. See Michel
Georges-Michel, "Lautrec et ses modèles," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 74
(April 1972), 244. The song she cited is that quoted in note 14 above. Lender did not
perform this song in Chilpéric .
18. According to Wittrock 1985, 261,
Meier-Graefe had solicited the lithograph in conjunction with a plan to disseminate
examples of the most advanced printmaking to his magazine's German audience. Lautrec
presented it to him as a gift, and Meier-Graefe wa s responsible only for the costs
associated with the printing. See Richard Thomson, "The Imagery of Toulouse-Lautrec's
Prints," in Wittrock 1985, 13; see also Adriani 1988, 161-162.
19. The
exhibition ran from 10 May to 10 June 1895. See Anne Roquebert, "Chronologie,"
in Paris 1991, 535.
20. The two impressions, both called Bust of Mlle Marcelle
Lender, are Rosenwald Collection 1947.7.184 and 1952.8.371 (both D. 102, W. 99).
21. For information on Stern and Kleinmann see Antony Griffiths, "The Prints of
Toulouse-Lautrec," in Wittrock 1985, 44-46. See also Phillip Dennis Cate and Sinclair
Hamilton Hitchings, The Color Revolution: Color Lithography in France 1890-1900
(Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City, 1978), 20, 38; and André Mellario, La
Lithographie originale en couleurs (Paris, 1898), trans. Margaret Needham in Cate and
Hitchings 1978, 90-91.
22. See Arsène Alexandre, "H.
de Toulouse-Lautrec," Pan 1, no. 3 (September 1895), 196. The
lithograph (Rosenwald Collection 1951.10.431, D. 102, W. 99) appeared on the
facing page.
23. Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.370, D. 102, W. 99.
24. Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.378, D. 110, W. 107; Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.373, D.
104, W. 103; Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.374, D. 105, W. 104; Rosenwald Collection
1952.8.375, D. 106, W. 105; Rosenwald Collection 1946.21.341, D. 107, W. 106.
25.
Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.376, D. 108, W. 108.
26. Rosenwald Collection
1952.8.376, D. 164, W. 109; Rosenwald Collection 1952.8.377, D. 109, W. 110; Rosenwald
Collection 1952.8.372, D. 103, W. 101; and D. 163; W. 102. The condition of Mlle
Marcelle Lender Standing unfortunately precludes its inclusion in this exhibition. The
National Gallery of Art does not have an impression of Lender Seated ; although
published by Kleinmann, it was not in his Lautrec collection when Lessing Rosenwald
purchased it in 1951. See Ruth E. Fine, Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector
[exh. cat., National Gallery of Art] (Washington, 1982), 232-233.
27. This
speculation occurs in Jean Adhémar, Toulouse-Lautrec: His Complete Lithographs
and Drypoints (New York, 1965), 133, and is echoed in Adriani 1988, 169. Lautrec and Stern
printed twenty impressions of the first state before deciding to rework it. In the second
state Lautrec eliminated Lavallière, reduced the image size, and printed in sanguine
rat her than black. Only a few impressions (four according to Wittrock) were pulled of
the second state. It seems counterintuitive to suppose that the first state was the
abortive experiment.
28. Oil on cardboard, 31 x 20 1/2 in. (79 x 51.5 cm), signed
HTLautrec (HTL in monogram) / 1896 at bottom left; private collection, U.S.
(Dortu P. 626). As this booklet goes to press we are still attempting to trace this
painting.
29. The pages in Chilpéric were breeches roles filled by
young women, performers chosen for their shapeliness, as Lautrec recognized in his
depictions.
30. The pages in Chilpéric were breeches roles filled by
young women, performers chosen for their shapeliness, as Lautrec recognized in his
depictions.
31. Adriani 1991, 300.
32. Oil on cardboard, 24 1/4 x 19 3/8
in. (61.7 x 49.3 cm), signed at lower right, HTLautrec (HTL in monogram) / 97.
Nocq first appeared in Lautrec's work in the poster "L'Artisan Moderne" (D.
350; W. P. 24), where he was the embodiment of the crafts revival, a doctor carrying his
remedies toward the bed of an attractive young woman, Marianne, the incarnation of the
French republic. Lautrec endorsed the revival of fine crafts, and his litho graphs
signify his active participation in the movement. See Douglas W. Druick,
"Toulouse-Lautrec: Notes on an Exhibition," The Print Collector's Notebook
17, no. 2 (May-June 1986), 45-47.
33. Dortu P. 638.
34. This
alternative identification was advocated by Adriani 1988, 369, and in Paris 1991, 134.
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