The Box, Faust
Medium
Lithograph in violet black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 37.2 × 26.5 cm (14 11/16 × 10 7/16 in.); Sheet: 55 × 38.3 cm (21 11/16 × 15 1/8 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
35812
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tale of life, death, and the divine, Charles Gounod’s opera tells the tragic story of Faust, a scholar; Mephistopheles, a demon; and Faust’s love, Marguerite. Here, Lautrec seats the viewer beside two theatergoers in their exclusive box seats. With the famous soprano Rose Caron pictured faintly in the background, the spectators too become performers, with the seated woman’s dramatic dress and expressive posture drawing the viewer closer.
Art Historical Context
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a leading French Post-Impressionist, produced this lithograph in 1896 amid the vibrant cultural ferment of Belle Époque Paris. Renowned for his unflinching yet affectionate views of cabarets, theaters, and nightlife, Lautrec captured the era’s social energy with bold, economical lines. His work bridged fine art and popular culture, making him a key figure in the rise of modern printmaking. Created as a lithograph in violet black on cream wove paper, the piece highlights Lautrec’s mastery of the medium. Lithography allowed artists to draw directly on stone, producing painterly effects and enabling wider distribution of images. In an age of expanding print culture, this technique helped democratize art while preserving the immediacy of Lautrec’s observations of Parisian entertainment. “The Box, Faust” evokes the theater world that fascinated Lautrec, likely showing spectators in a private box during a performance related to the opera Faust. Such scenes allowed him to explore light, social interaction, and the glamour of the stage. Now in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, the work remains a vivid window into late-nineteenth-century Parisian life and Lautrec’s enduring graphic innovation.
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...