1893
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Sleepless Night is a 1893 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman sits at a table, head in her hands, eyes closed. The room is dim, lit only by a small lamp. Shadows stretch across her face and the wall behind her. This isn’t a painting—it’s a print made using lithography, a new technique at the time. Lautrec designed it as a cover for sheet music, blending art with everyday life. The mood feels quiet, almost like a snapshot of a private moment. If you like this, look up the technique of lithography next.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec experimented with the recently invented technique of lithography. In addition to fine art prints, he often created ephemera, including posters and sheet music—such as this example. It was commissioned as a cover illustration for Nuit Blanche , a poem by Jean Goudezki that was set to music composed by Désiré Dihau, a well-known bassoonist.
Désiré Dihau, who composed the music for which Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created this cover illustration, was the artist’s cousin.
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.
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