+ Expand

Description: Painted in 1899. signed HTLautrec (upper left) oil on panel

+ Expand

Dimensions: measurements 61 by 49cm. alternate measurements 24 by 19 1/4 in.

+ Expand

Provenance: Michel Manzi, Paris (sale: Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, Collection Manzi, 13υth March 1919, lot 94)
M. Mancini, Paris (purchased at the above sale. Sale: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 23υrd June 1960, lot 88)
Wildenstein & Co., New York (purchased at the above sale)
The Phillips Family Collection (acquired from the above in 1965; until 1994)
Private Collection, New York

+ Expand

Exhibited:

Paris, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Exposition rétrospective de l'oeuvre de Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , 1914, no. 89
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Toulouse-Lautrec , 1964, no. 51, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Faces from the World of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism , 1972, no. 64, illustrated in the catalogue
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings , 1979, no. 97, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum (on loan 1983-86)

+ Expand

Published: Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, peintre, Paris, 1926, illustrated opposite p. 174
René Huyghe, ?Aspects de Toulouse-Lautrec?, in L?Amour de l?Art, April 1931, fig. 23, detail illustrated
Jean Adhemar, Collection Génies et réalités: Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, 1962, illustrated p. 222
Philippe Huisman & M. G. Dortu, Lautrec par Lautrec, Paris, 1964, illustrated in colour p. 218
Newsweek, 10υth February 1964, illustrated p. 74
Pierre Paret, Femmes Lautrec, Paris, 1969, illustrated p. 47
M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre, New York, 1971, vol. III, no. P.678, illustrated p. 415
Bruno Foucard & Gabriele M. Sugana, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, 1986, no. 640, illustrated p. 127
Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel & Mark Rosenthal, Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection (exhibition catalogue), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1989, fig. 106, illustrated p. 169
Edouard Julien, Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, 1991, illustrated p. 52

+ Expand

Notes: Le Coucher or Femme en chemise devant un lit (Madame Poupoule) belongs to the great series of Toulouse-Lautrec?s depictions of scenes from the maisons closes, or Parisian brothels. During the last decade of his life, the artist frequented the brothels in the Rue des Moulins, the Rue d?Ambroise and the Rue Joubert, often lodging there for weeks at a time. He was thus able to observe the intense personal relationships that sprung up between the working women, who were often forsaken by their own families and friends, and his profound understanding of their human condition gave rise to this unprecedented group of paintings. Whilst living with them in the brothels, their daily routine and intimate everyday moments were continually before his eyes. The artist observed them meticulously in their leisure time, at their toilette, at breakfast or waiting for customers. In painting images of the demi-monde, Toulouse-Lautrec did not - as so many of his contemporaries did - express social critique, and sought instead to capture the timeless humanity that lay beneath the façade of his subjects. Fascinated by figures in closed surroundings, he produced works that are remarkable not only for their technical and formal achievements, but also for their psychological acuity. His sensitive depictions of the uneventful daily routine of the prostitutes, their attempts to relieve the boredom of waiting between clients and their quiet, personal moments are amongst his best paintings. The women?s naturalness appealed to Lautrec: ?Models always look as if they were stuffed; these women are alive. I wouldn?t dare pay them to pose for me, yet God knows they?re worth it. They stretch themselves out on the divans like animals? they?re so lacking in pretension? (quoted in Henri Perruchot, Toulouse-Lautrec, London, 1960, p. 157). The subject of Le Coucher was known by the name Madame Poupoule, whom Toulouse-Lautrec painted on several occasions from 1897 until shortly before his death in 1901 (figs. 1 & 2). As in the present work, she is always shown in a private, contemplative moment, always dominated by an introspective atmosphere. Discussing the present painting, Naomi E. Maurer and Charles F. Stuckey wrote: ?According to Joyant, Lautrec painted this extraordinary work in 1899 from a prostitute model called Madame Poupoule. Judging from the close relationship between the painting and several of Lautrec?s brothel pictures from 1892-1895, the pictorial idea of a semi-draped female figure set against a dim background, although developed earlier, continued to fascinate him.? ?As he had done frequently since painting his first female nude in 1882, Lautrec placed his model in profile at the very center of his composition, in the attitude of an antique statue such as the Venus de Medici [fig. 3]. The ?sculpted? quality of the woman?s body is emphasized by Lautrec?s treatment of the background, whose hazy and diffuse homogeneity contrasts strongly with the clearly defined volume of her form. Lautrec?s choice of colors is equally important in establishing the mood and formal decorative power of this image. The yellow-green tones of the model?s body, intensified by Lautrec?s use of complementary shades of orange-brown shot with violet in the background, are almost phosphorescent and mordant, creating a slightly hallucinatory effect. The wood panel support on which Lautrec chose to paint the picture enhances its dominant warm tonality where it shows through his transparent washes of thin paint. The combination of pensive profile pose and subdued background creates a delicate mood of introspective reverie, a mixture of substance and dream with an underlying suggestion of a traditional ?vanitas? theme. Lautrec?s initial inspiration probably came from the well-known pictures of bathers which Renoir creating beginning around 1887 [fig. 4]? Like Renoir?s bathers, Madame Poupoule seems to float in a space made of an altogether different element, the unsubstantiality of which accentuates the beauty of the female form? (N. E. Maurer & C. F. Stuckey in Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., pp. 297-298). The first owner of the present work was Michel Manzi (1849?1915), an engraver and art collector who was close to artists including Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas. Driven by his passion for fine arts, literature, theatre, music and fashion, Manzi undertook the restoration of l?Hôtel des Modes, a public space near the Madeleine in Paris, where he organised a wide range of events including exhibitions, concerts and poetry readings. He also worked as an art dealer together with Maurice Joyant, and they commissioned several works from Toulouse-Lautrec. Michel Manzi assembled an impressive collection of paintings and art objects. After his death, his collection was sold in a series of six auctions held from March 1919 until December 1921. Fig. 1, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, A la toilette: Madame Poupoule, 1898, oil on panel, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi Fig. 2, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Femme retroussant sa chemise, 1901, oil on panel, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Fig. 3, Medici Venus, 2υnd century B.C., marble, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Jeune femme se baignant