1896
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Elles: Woman Lying on Her Back is a 1896 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a Impressionism work, depicting Sleep, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman lies on her back, one arm bent behind her head, staring straight at you. She’s not posing—just resting in a plain room. Lautrec spent years in Paris brothels, not as a client but as a friend. He painted the women as they really were: tired, bored, or lost in thought. The series was meant to sell prints, but buyers wanted fantasy, not honesty. If you like this quiet realism, look up the subject *france, 19th century* for more unvarnished scenes of everyday life.
The French publisher Gustave Pellet, hoping to attract new customers, persuaded Lautrec to make a series of ten prints, plus frontispiece and cover, depicting brothels. Although it was not unusual to see prostitutes pictured in the popular press, Lautrec was the first well-known, successful artist to tackle this subject. The set was a commercial failure when it first appeared, perhaps because the scenes are not erotic. Lautrec had said that "they are women to my liking", and between 1892 and 1895 he often lived in various Parisian brothels for weeks at a time. This allowed him to witness the…
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
