Dance in the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Dance in the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

To the masterpieces of art is the painting “Dance in the Moulin Rouge”. By the time of the creation of the work, the versatility of the talent of Toulouse-Lautrec was fully revealed, and he could afford to portray both the Parisian life and any celebrity of secular society in the satirical, sometimes caustic manner, not pleasing the model, and phenomenal observation helped create the “document” of the era.

The painting opens a new cycle of works, illuminating the night life of the capital, and in it the artist captures the bright, incendiary dance of the celebrities “Moulin Rouge” – Valentine Le Decot, nicknamed “Boneless” and La Gulya. The main characters of the plot are depicted in an exaggerated form in the grotesque plan, even caricatured, and the viewer has the opportunity to “participate” in the event, for which the author left a gap in the foreground of the canvas. Cut off the left border of the canvas figure creates the feeling that the action continues beyond the picture.

In addition to dancing stars, the painting depicts famous metropolitan celebrities with whom Lautrec was friendly, and constantly “prescribed” them in his works.

This work was ordered by the director of “Moulin Rouge” Oller, and was preserved only in fragments. The sides of the picture were severely curtailed, since the canvas had impressive dimensions, and the space intended for it in the cabaret was not enough to fit it entirely.