Artwork
Yvette Guilbert
Yvette Guilbert is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It dates from 1894 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1894 lithograph presents the celebrated Parisian chanteuse Yvette Guilbert. Executed in a vivid olive‑green palette, the print captures the performer in profile, her head turned slightly toward the viewer, a feathered hat and high‑collared coat framing her figure. The composition is set against a flat background, with the title rendered in gold lettering above.
Subject & Meaning
Yvette Guilbert, a prominent singer of the Belle Époque, appears as an emblem of the era’s theatrical world. Her poised stance, cane in hand, and elegant attire convey both the glamour and the performative artifice of Parisian nightlife, reflecting the artist’s fascination with the personalities that animated the city’s cabarets.
Technique & Style
The lithograph employs bold, simplified lines that reduce the sitter’s features to near‑cartoonic forms, emphasizing silhouette over detail. Strong contours and the striking olive hue generate visual dynamism, while the minimal background focuses attention on Guilbert’s face and accessories, a hallmark of Lautrec’s graphic approach to portraiture.
History & Provenance
Created in 1894, the work belongs to a series of portraits Lautrec produced of frequent subjects from Montmartre’s entertainment circles. The lithograph reflects the artist’s personal connection to the cabaret scene, where he regularly observed and recorded its leading figures.
Context
During the late nineteenth century, Parisian cafés, cabarets, and music halls formed a vibrant cultural network. Lautrec, himself an outsider due to a childhood condition that limited his physical growth, documented this milieu with an intimate yet detached eye, situating Guilbert within the broader tapestry of urban modernity.
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.
