Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864­1901
At the Moulin Rouge
1892/95
Oil on canvas
123 x 141 cm
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1928.610

Reflected lights shimmer in the mirrored walls of this cabaret, the Moulin Rouge, one of the most popular night spots in Paris where Toulouse-Lautrec and other artists were frequent visitors in the 1890s. Here, the artist focuses on the customers and entertainers who were his friends. The haunting face of the dancer May Milton looms eerily at the right edge of the canvas. The flaming red hair of the entertainer Jane Avril is almost at the painting’s center. Toulouse-Lautrec himself walks by in the background, almost invisible next to his tall companion who was his cousin and great friend.