TOULOUSE LAUTREC BK OF POSTER

It is 100 years since Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, then an aspiring young painter, was commissioned to produce his first colour lithograph, a poster for the Moulin Rouge. During the 1890s, he went on to create more than thirty magnificent posters, today acknowledged as among the greatest achievements in graphic art and the most expressive and indelible images of this glamorous decade. Through his daringly bold use of line and colour, and using the power of the medium to its full, Lautrec simplified his subjects to striking silhouettes, verging on caricature, yet brilliantly and dispassionately conveyed their spirit with a strength that has never been rivalled. His achievement also lay in his consummate ability to portray in his poster oeuvre the broad spectrum of life in late 19th century Paris, not only its role as the world's pleasure capital, but its dynamism as a flourishing trade, artistic and literary centre - as well as its squalid underside. Displayed on the streets of Paris, his results both shocked and fascinated the public and were widely discussed but they were also zealously collected.
While Lautrec's cabaret posters for his friends Aristide Bruant and the dancer Jane Avril are familiar through countless reproductions, his other productions, such as those advertising contemporary novels and journals and for commercial organizations, are less well known. This, the most comprehensive book yet devoted to Lautrec's posters, redresses the imbalance. His complete output is presented in its correct chronological sequence with high quality large format colour reproductions of every poster. The creation and critical success of each work is fully described and many are accompanied by related sketches, studies and contemporary photographs. The introduction, extensively illustrated with paintings, drawings and photographs, discusses the history of French poster art and the creative and technical processes involved, outlines Lautrec's short but phenomenally prolific life and assesses his unique status in the evolution of this vibrant art form.