Many of Lautrec’s works are devoted to scenes from the life of brothels. In Paris, the artist had two favorite brothels, where he sometimes spent weeks wandering around here with friends and drawing prostitutes.
The inhabitants of these houses treated the artist tenderly, and he reciprocated them. Lautrec appreciated the fact that these women did not hesitate to appear naked or half-naked before him – this gave him the opportunity to make live sketches from the nature of “The Girl in the Corset.” The artist wrote the life of prostitutes in detail and interested, but in works of this kind there was no shadow of moralizing or sentimentality.
He portrayed his heroines, busy everyday, often routine, affairs-washing, playing cards, making beds, lazily waiting for the client, undergoing medical examination, etc. By selling their bodies to men, many prostitutes became lesbians that did not escape from the acute Lautrec’s gaze.