?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 30,000 - $ 40,000
HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901) TROUPE DE MLLE EGLANTINE. 1896. 24x31 5/8 inches. Condition B/B+: water damage in left image; faded; vertical and horizontal folds. Of all of Lautrec's posters, this one carries the most background information as to its inception and creation. Jane Avril and Eglantine wrote to Lautrec on the 15th of January, 1896, and asked that he design a poster for them, "as you think best." Lautrec clearly appreciated these commissions he got from friends (which he no doubt executed for free). He designed the image based on a photograph he had of the four dancers, who appear in the finished lithograph in order: Eglantine, Jane Avril, Cléopatre and Gazelle. The poster was for the troupe's appearance at the Palace Theatre in London, where they were performing the Quadrille Naturaliste, a popular dance from the French music halls. Lautrec bathes the dancers in the yellow glow of the stage lights, and uses the wooden planks of the stage to highlight the diagonal layout of the image. Their darkly clad legs emerging from the large white space of their petticoats was both alluring and risqué. Witrock P21C, Adriani 162-III, DFP-II 850, Masters 1900 p. 49, Wine Spectator 43.
