Artist 21: Toulouse Lautrec

Toulouse Lautrec was born in 1864 in France. One of my favorite artists, many of his pieces revolve around scenes such as this one pictured here, "At the Moulin Rouge." Many of his figures are dressed up in fancy clothes, which they would be in that time period inside a place such as that. Yet while this seems like a fancy place, he makes it seem, I guess scary is a good word. If you look at the woman on the right, staring at you, she looks ghoulish. Possibly giving a wink to the type of places these were, a bit shady. He meshes class with sleeze in his paintings and creates visually stunning pieces that capture your eye and won't let go. His figures are always so expressive and each has their own personality. The angles he chooses are also important to the pieces and are always interesting, they help to make his works more dynamic and unique. Finally, I like this piece, and all of his works, but primarily this piece because of the textures he seems to have, it doesn't seem to have incredibly smooth colors, but the roughness gives it more character and adds to the character of setting and figures pictured.