Fastening a Corset

Art Historical Context

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's *Fastening a Corset* (1896) captures an intimate moment of daily life in fin-de-siècle Paris, a city buzzing with the energy of the Belle Époque. The Post-Impressionist artist, renowned for his vivid depictions of Montmartre's bohemian nightlife, cabarets, and demimonde, here focuses on a man assisting a woman with her corset—a garment emblematic of late 19th-century fashion's rigid ideals of femininity. Lautrec's unflinching gaze reveals the sensual undercurrents of ordinary routines, blending tenderness with subtle eroticism in a scene that humanizes his subjects amid the era's social shifts. Printed as a five-color lithograph on wove paper (20-7/16 x 15-3/4 in.), this work showcases Lautrec's mastery of the medium. He revolutionized color lithography, layering bold hues with precise registration to achieve poster-like vibrancy typically reserved for fine art prints. Unlike traditional monochromatic lithographs, his technique brought immediacy and depth, making affordable reproductions that democratized art for the public. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982), *Fastening a Corset* reflects cultural tensions around gender, dress, and desire. It invites visitors to ponder how clothing shaped identity in a transformative time, offering a window into Lautrec's empathetic yet provocative worldview.

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...