The Sofa by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901)

This is "The Sofa," painted by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1894. It belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What makes this painting truly radical for its time is that it depicts two Parisian sex workers in a private moment of tenderness, without a trace of moral commentary. The same year this was painted, the Moulin Rouge opened and the world Lautrec was recording was entering its peak.

Look at how he builds the intimacy: the figures' faces nearly touch but never quite connect, and the space between them hums with unspoken affection. The red-haired woman is the active presence, leaning in, while the reclining woman is entirely weightless, surrendering to the sofa. Lautrec's brushwork is impossibly loose, blurring the arms and hands so that it is hard to tell where one body ends and the other begins.

Toulouse-Lautrec was born into the French aristocracy but broke both his legs as a teenager, stunting his growth. In his adult life he became a fixture in the brothels of Montmartre, not as a client but as a resident and a confidant. He painted the women who worked there sleeping, dressing, and loving one another. His paintings were often rejected by the polite society he was born into, but he kept painting what he saw.

This was a clandestine subject in 1894, painted by a man who simply liked the people he was with. He catches a fleeting moment of softness in a hard world and gives it the gravity of a landscape.