1894
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Yvette Guilbert is a 1894 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a woman in a long black dress and gloves, leaning forward with her hands clasped. Her face is pale, her lips bright red, and her hair pulled back tight. This is Yvette Guilbert, a famous singer in 1890s Paris. Lautrec drew her many times—this sketch was practice for a poster she never used. Look at how he suggests her stage presence with just a few quick lines. To see more of Lautrec’s nightlife scenes, look up Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901).
This drawing depicts Yvette Guilbert, a popular Parisian cabaret performer who was the subject of numerous prints, posters, drawings, and paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Here, Lautrec began to work out the composition of a poster that Guilbert commissioned from him to publicize her upcoming season at Les Ambassadeurs, a popular night club. A more finished study is part of the collection of the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi, France, but the poster itself was never realized after Guilbert rejected the design as unflattering.
Yvette Guilbert's cabaret act was centered on the distinctive long black gloves that she wore during performances.
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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