American Singer (from Le Café Concert)
Medium
Brush and spatter lithograph printed in black on laid Japan paper; only state; from deluxe 1893 edition
Dimensions
Image: 10 15/16 × 8 1/16 in. (27.8 × 20.5 cm) Sheet: 18 1/4 × 11 7/16 in. (46.3 × 29 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982
Accession Number
1984.1203.154
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant café-concerts of 1890s Paris, bohemian crowds gathered song and spectacle, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec captured electric energy of performers like the "American Singer." This 1893 lithograph, from the series *Le Café Concert*, a male singer mid-performance, embodying the Post-Impressionist's fascination with Montmartre's nightlife. Lautrec, a master of the Belle Époque, distilled fleeting moments into iconic images, collaborating with printer Edward Ancourt and publisher L'Estampe Originale for deluxe edition. Printed in black using innovative brush and spatter lithography on luxuri...
About the Artist
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec|Edward Ancourt|l'Estampe Originale · 1864–1901
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (1864-1901) was a French Post-Impressionist painter, printmaker, and illustrator whose innovative poster designs revolutionized graphic art and advertising in late 19th-century Paris. Born into an aristocratic family at Albi in southern France, Toulouse-Lautrec's privileged lineage traced back to the Counts of Toulouse and extended uninterrupted to th...