Madame Réjane

Art Historical Context

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1898 lithograph *Madame Réjane* captures the celebrated French actress Gabrielle Réjane, a star of the Parisian stage during the Belle Époque. Known for his incisive portrayals of entertainers and cabaret life, Toulouse-Lautrec here presents a poised, elegant figure whose expressive features and fashionable attire reflect the glamour of late-nineteenth-century theater. The work belongs to the artist’s mature period, when he turned increasingly to printmaking as a means of reaching wider audiences beyond the gallery walls. As a lithograph on wove paper, the print demonstrates Toulouse-Lautrec’s mastery of the medium. He exploited the fluid, spontaneous line and tonal subtlety that lithography allowed, qualities that made the technique ideal for conveying movement and personality. Created just two years before his death, this portrait exemplifies his ability to distill character with economy and wit, qualities that helped elevate commercial printmaking to the level of fine art. Today the sheet resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, a gift that preserves a vivid record of both an iconic performer and one of the era’s most innovative graphic artists.

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...