Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [antikvár]

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec "Your drawing is atrocious," Léon Bonnat told Lautrec, his student at the École des Beaux-Arts, in 1882. This criticism shows not only total incomprehension but also the incisive originality of the famous draftsmanship thanks to which Lautrec's name has become what it is today. Although less tragic than Van Gogh's, Toulouse-Lautrec's life was nonetheless marked by fatality. Born at Albi in 1864 into one of the most ancient noble families of France, the son of a pious mother and of an eccentric father who loved falconry, hunting and horses, he broke both his legs in childhood and remained a ridiculous dwarf for the rest of his life. This infirmity conditioned his art as well as his bizarre life. Since he could no longer lead a normal existence in the aristocratic milieu into which he had been born, he quickly decided to remain outside of "good society." In 1882 he arrived in Paris to do his classical studies but soon put an end to these "studious imbecilities." After settling in an atelier in Montmartre, near Degas', he became