HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901) LA LOGE AU MASCARON DORE. 1893. 17 1/2x12 1/4 inches, 45x31 cm. Ed. Kleinmann, Paris. Condition A. Signed and numbered in pencil. Matted and framed. Lautrec was a passionate theatergoer and a good portion of his graphic work is dedicated to actors or actually depicts scenes inside Paris' music halls and cafe-concerts. For all of his lithographs depicting people in boxes at various theatres around Paris Lautrec approaches his subjects from the side. La Loge au Mascaron Doré [The Box with the Gilded Mask] is far more interesting. Its daring composition, with a low angled perspective and vivid strokes evoking the box and curtains, is Lautrec's only head-on view of a box in a theatre. "With its economical use of color, this is one of Lautrec's greatest achievements in the field of small-scale color lithography" (Adriani p. 110). The central figure is an unidentified woman, but the man appearing to sleep through the production is Lautrec's friend Charles Edward Conder, an English illustrator. The image was designed and used as the cover of the program for Le Missionaire at the Théâtre Libre. However in this, its first state, it was printed in a run of 100, with very wide margins, signed and numbered by the artist. Adriani 69 I, Delteil 16 I, Wittrock 16.
