Divan Japonais
Medium
Color lithograph on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 80.1 × 60.1 cm (31 9/16 × 23 11/16 in.); Sheet: 80.2 × 61.8 cm (31 5/8 × 24 3/8 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
67166
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The dancer Jane Avril was one of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s closest friends and favorite subjects. Here, though, she is depicted as a spectator, carefully observing the performance of her rival, Yvette Guilbert, at the Divan Japonais club. Montmartre’s nightclub owners lured in potential customers with the notoriety of their (often female) performers, who were typically expected to entertain their audiences both on and off the stage. Avril’s striking black dress and hat stand in stark contrast ...
About the Artist
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · 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...