1896
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Elles: Woman In a Corset is a 1896 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman in a tight corset sits on a bed, her back to us. The room is dim, lit only by a small lamp. Toulouse-Lautrec didn’t paint idealized beauty. He showed real women—tired, private moments in Paris brothels. This was part of his *Elles* series, a rare look at lives most artists ignored. The colors are soft but bold, like a quick sketch that feels alive. If you want to see more of these raw, honest scenes, look up the *subject: france, 19th century*.
Like Cassatt, Toulouse-Lautrec also made a series of color prints depicting the daily lives of women, but instead of portraying bourgeois wives and mothers, his subjects were prostitutes. His series of twelve lithographs entitled Elles boldly confronted the reality of late 19th-century Parisian brothels on the rue de Moulins and the rue de Richelieu, in which rich men's pursuit of pleasure with the daughters of the poor was legal and accepted. Although not portraits of classic beauty, his depictions of Parisian prostitutes embrace the poignancy of human experience. Here, a prostitute unhooks…
This print belongs to a portfolio published by the dealer Gustave Pellet, who created a special luxury paper that featured a watermark of his initials.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (French: ), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator.
See the richer artist page
