Elles: The Toilet
Medium
color lithograph
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Ralph King
Accession Number
1925.1204.6
Tags
male
About this artwork
The French publisher Gustave Pellet, hoping to attract new customers, persuaded Lautrec to make a series of ten prints, plus frontispiece and cover, depicting brothels. Although it was not unusual to see prostitutes pictured in the popular press, Lautrec was the first well-known, successful artist to tackle this subject. The set was a commercial failure when it first appeared, perhaps because the scenes are not erotic. Lautrec had said that "they are women to my liking", and between 1892 and 189...