"Les Vieux Messieurs" (The Old Gentlemen)
Medium
Lithograph on wove paper
Dimensions
20-7/16 x 15-3/4 in. (51.9 x 40.0 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Clifford A. Furst, 1958
Accession Number
58.621.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec *Les Vieux Messieurs* (The Old Gentlemen), in 1894, the vibrant yet seedy underbelly of fin-de-siècle Paris through the artist's masterful lithography. Printed on wove paper and measuring 20-7/16 x 15-3/4 inches, this work exemplifies Lautrec's Post-Impressionist style, sharp social observation with bold, flattened forms and vivid lines. As a leading figure in the poster art revolution, Lautrec elevated lithography from commercial tool to fine art, producing over 350 prints that immortalized Montmartre's cabarets, brothels, and bohemian nightlife. The title evokes a ...
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...