Artwork
The Milliner (La Modiste - Renée Vert)
The Milliner (La Modiste - Renée Vert) is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It dates from 1893 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1893 work *The Milliner (La Modiste – Renée Vert)* is a green lithographic print. Executed during the artist’s mature period, it captures a moment in a Parisian workshop, focusing on a female hat‑maker arranging a floral‑adorned headpiece. The image reflects the everyday labor of a profession that supplied the city’s fashionable clientele.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on a woman in a flowing dress, poised with a hat crowned by a single flower. A nearby menu lists French delicacies such as saucisson and Bordeaux, concluding with a note about an eight‑o’clock dinner. This juxtaposition of sartorial craft and culinary anticipation hints at the intertwined social rituals of fashion and dining in fin‑de‑siècle Paris.
Technique & Style
Created through lithography, the print employs a limited palette dominated by green tones, allowing for swift, gestural lines that convey movement and immediacy. Toulouse-Lautrec’s approach favors economy of detail, using loose strokes to suggest texture and form rather than rendering precise realism, a hallmark of his printmaking practice.
History & Provenance
Toulouse-Lautrec, born into French aristocracy in 1864, turned to printmaking alongside painting and drawing, documenting the nightlife and labor of his city.
Toulouse-Lautrec, born into French aristocracy in 1864, turned to printmaking alongside painting and drawing, documenting the nightlife and labor of his city. *The Milliner* was produced in the early 1890s, a period when he regularly depicted Parisian workers and entertainers. The print has circulated through private collections and museum holdings, illustrating the artist’s sustained interest in urban occupations.
Context
The work belongs to a broader series of images that explore the behind‑the‑scenes world of Paris’s entertainment and service sectors. By focusing on a milliner—a figure essential to the city’s fashion economy—Toulouse-Lautrec expands his visual catalogue beyond cabarets to include the quieter, industrious aspects of metropolitan life.
Artist & collection
Artist
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (French: ), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator.
