Artwork
The Sofa
The Sofa is an oil painting by the Post-Impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It dates from 1898 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting shows a woman identified as a prostitute seated beside a female companion, a representation that art historians interpret as a lesbian couple.
The painting shows a woman identified as a prostitute seated beside a female companion, a representation that art historians interpret as a lesbian couple. The composition places the figures on a domestic sofa, blurring public and private spheres and hinting at alternative sexual identities within late‑19th‑century Parisian nightlife. By portraying a sex worker in an intimate domestic setting, Toulouse‑Lautrec foregrounds themes of desire, social marginality, and the commodification of female intimacy.
The work’s material, oil on cardboard, underscores its modern, commercial character, while its 1894 date situates it at the emergence of Symbolist interest in hidden relationships.
Technique & Style
The Sofa is executed in oil paint on a cardboard support, a combination Toulouse-Lautrec frequently favored for its absorbent, matte quality that encouraged rapid, sketch-like handling rather than the glossy finish associated with traditional canvas. The horizontal format, measuring 62.9 by 81 centimeters, accommodates an intimate, frieze-like arrangement of figures pressed close to the picture plane. The artist’s brushwork is loose and economical, with thin, fluid passages of pigment that allow the warm tone of the cardboard ground to function as an integral mid-value, unifying the composition and lending the scene its characteristic flatness.
This economical technique, combined with the modest scale of the support, reflects Toulouse-Lautrec’s interest in poster-like immediacy and graphic simplification rather than academic finish.
History & Provenance
The Sofa was painted by Henri de Toulouse‑Lautrec in 1894 using oil on cardboard. The work measures 62.9 × 81 cm and depicts a woman with a couple, a prostitute, and a lesbian couple. It is classified as a painting and has been part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection since its acquisition, listed under accession number 51.33.2.
The painting’s creation history is tied to Lautrec’s exploration of intimate, often controversial subjects in the late 19th century, and its dating is firmly established to 1894.
The painting titled The Sofa (1894) is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its accession number, recorded in the museum’s catalogue, is 51.33.2, identifying it as part of the Met’s collection. The work is classified as an oil on cardboard painting and is listed under the museum’s inventory of 19th‑century French paintings.
No exhibition records are cited in the available documentation, indicating that the piece has not been included in publicly listed exhibitions to date.
Overview
The Sofa is an oil painting that captures two female figures reclining within a natural landscape. Executed with a dynamic approach to paint application, the artwork presents an intimate scene set against a backdrop of tall grasses. The composition emphasizes the close proximity of the subjects, rendered with a palette that highlights their individual features and the texture of their surroundings.
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Artist & collection
Artist
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.
