Musée Toulouse-Lautrec

The Musée Toulouse-Lautrec is an art museum in Albi, southern France, dedicated mainly to the work of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was born in the city. Housed in the 13th-century Palais de la Berbie, originally the palace of the bishop of Albi Cathedral, the museum holds the world's largest public collection devoted to the artist. Both the palace and the adjacent cathedral form part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The institution receives approximately 175,000 visitors annually, placing it among the most frequented museums in Occitanie.

The museum's origins trace to the death of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1901, when his parents, as custodians of his work, sought to donate the collection to a museum. After Parisian museums declined the offer, his mother, Countess Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec, proposed the gift to the city of Albi. The municipal administration, which had long considered establishing a museum and now had access to the disused rooms of the Palais de la Berbie, accepted the donation. The First World War delayed the project, but the first exhibition rooms finally opened on 30 July 1922, inaugurated in the presence of Maurice Joyant, Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran. From 2001 to 2012, the museum underwent an extensive restructuring programme, closing for three months before reopening to the public on 2 April 2012. Since June 2024, the museum has maintained a partnership with the Musée Goya de Castres and has lent works for temporary exhibitions.

The museum holds over one thousand works by and about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, comprising paintings, lithographs, drawings, and posters. The collection spans his entire career, from his earliest composition on horses, L'artilleur sellant son cheval (1879), to his final painting, Examination at the School of Medicine (1901), also known as Un examen à la faculté de Paris. The holdings include all 31 posters he designed between 1891 and 1900, as well as more than 200 lithographs evoking the Belle Époque. The collection traces his development from youthful works through major paintings such as Au salon de la rue des Moulins and the poster Moulin rouge - La Goulue. Beyond Toulouse-Lautrec, the museum possesses a significant collection of modern art on an entire floor, complementing the Toulouse-Lautrec holdings with works from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. This modern art collection documents the artistic circles in which Toulouse-Lautrec moved, acquired through state purchases and donations. The museum also holds older works, including two exceptional representations of saints by Georges de La Tour in the Apôtres d'Albi series, alongside copies of dispersed or lost works, and 17th- to 19th-century French and Italian paintings in the Salle de la Croix.

Among the museum's signature works are Toulouse-Lautrec's complete set of 31 posters and over 200 lithographs. His final painting, Examination at the School of Medicine (1901), holds particular significance as the culmination of his oeuvre. The Salle de la Croix contains notable works by other masters: two views of Venice by Francesco Guardi from the collection of Cardinal de Bernis; Luca Giordano's The Departure of Jacob from Laban; a portrait of Hyacinthe Serroni, first archbishop of Albi, after Hyacinthe Rigaud; Jean-Baptiste Santerre's Portrait of a Young Woman; Joseph Vernet's The Fishing; Achille-Etna Michallon's Views of Sceaux (1814); and Jean-Baptiste Corot's Souvenir d'Italie, danseurs des rivages de Capri (1865-1875). The modern art collection includes Louis Anquetin's Portrait of Yvette Guilbert (1893), Émile Bernard's Portrait of my sister Madeleine (1888), Pierre Bonnard's The Gulf of Saint-Tropez at Sunset (1937), Edgar Degas's The Man with the Gibus, Maurice Denis's Saint-François-du-Désert (1907), and multiple works by Maxime Dethomas including Portrait of Toulouse-Lautrec in full length, in beach costume (1898).

The Palais de la Berbie is a powerful 13th-century fortress in the historic centre of Albi, located near the Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile with which it forms an architectural ensemble of red brick. Construction began before the cathedral itself, under Bishop Durand de Beaucaire (bishop from 1228 to 1254), who built it with fortress features during the period when the Catholic Church was at war with the Cathar heresy, which originated in Albi. Bishop de Combret fortified the palace by connecting it to the cathedral tower twenty-five metres away, adding bastions and a machicoulis over the entrance. Bishop De Castanet later built a new wall and added Saint Catherine tower, linked to one of the cathedral towers. From the Renaissance through the 18th century, successive prelates transformed the fortress into a pleasure palace with ceremonial rooms and French gardens. The two terraces and classical garden were laid out between 1678 and 1687 at the initiative of the first archbishop of Albi, Mgr Hyacinthe Serroni. The curtain walls, having lost their defensive function, were converted into a shaded promenade offering panoramic views over the Tarn river. In the 18th century, Mgr. de Stainville placed marble statues representing the seasons along this walk. The medieval architecture is organised around a courtyard of honour and a keep, which today serves as the museum entrance.

The Musée Toulouse-Lautrec is located in the Palais de la Berbie in the historic centre of Albi, adjacent to Albi Cathedral and near the tourist information centre. The museum's collections are distributed across a ground floor and two upper floors, with the cabinet des dessins housing fragile drawings and lithographs. The palace gardens lie along the Tarn river. The building and the cathedral together constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The museum is owned by the municipality, following the nationalisation of cathedral properties in 1905 under the law on the separation of churches and state, when the palace became property of the department and was subsequently given to the city for use as a museum. The museum maintains an official website at musee-toulouse-lautrec.com.