Henry Somm
Medium
drypoint
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1953.6.134
Art Historical Context
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created this drypoint portrait of Somm in 1898 capturing a fellow French artist and illustrator for his witty caricatures and contributions to Parisian print culture. By the late 1890s, Toulouse-Lrec was already celebrated for his incisive depictions Montmartre’s nightlife, and this work reflects his ongoing interest in portraying contemporaries within the vibrant artistic circles of fin-de-siècle. Executed in drypoint, the showcases the medium’s distinctive qualities: the artist scratched directly into a metal plate, raising a soft burr along the lines that produces...
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...