The author of the engraving ‘The Portrait of Mr. X’ is the French painting and drawing artist and drawer Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa. He worked in the genre of Post-Impressionism and was one of the first artists to paint advertising posters. He was mostly interested in mode of life and entertainment of the Paris underclass and Bohemians, his characters were dance girls, street singers, laundry women, circus performers, musclemen, stars of Montmartre. Henri’s creative art was significantly influenced by works by Cezanne and Degas. In his works the artist captured minute details, sniped at his characters and exaggerated the situations, but never condemned his models.
The Portrait of Mr. X
Creation period
1898
Dimensions
25,9x19,6 cm
sheet: 25,9x19,6 cm; image: 17x10,1 cm
sheet: 25,9x19,6 cm; image: 17x10,1 cm
Technique
dry point engraving
Collection
3
Open in app#3
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
The Portrait of Mr. X
#2
#5
Dancing in Moulin Rouge, oil on canvass, 1890. img via: wikipedia.org
Henri was born in 1864 and spent his first three years in the family estate in Albi. After his parents’ divorce, Henri joined his mother in Paris, learnt horse riding, studied Latin and Greek, drew sketches and caricatures.
#6
His family friend, animal painter René Princeteau taught the boy to draw horses, and when grown up, the painter drew them expertly. His family friend, animal painter René Princeteau taught the boy to draw horses, and when grown up, the painter drew them expertly.
At the age of 13, Henry got his left femoral neck fractured when he was getting off an armchair, and a year later he fell into a ditch and had his right femoral neck fractured. After that his legs ceased to grow. Due to the injury he was not able join military service and was deprived of all kinds of entertainment popular among young aristocracy: hunting, horse riding, dancing parties. At the age of 13, Henry got his left femoral neck fractured when he was getting off an armchair, and a year later he fell into a ditch and had his right femoral neck fractured. After that his legs ceased to grow. Due to the injury he was not able join military service and was deprived of all kinds of entertainment popular among young aristocracy: hunting, horse riding, dancing parties.
His father lost any interest in his son, but his mother continued to support Henri. At the age of 18 he came to Paris and studied under the artists Florentin Bonnat and Fernand Cormon. In 1885 Toulouse-Lautrec founded his studio at Montmartre, a cheap and Bohemian district with a lot of bars, cabarets and brothels. When Moulin Rouge opened, Henri received a commission to paint advertising posters. Despite certain criticism of his works, he elevated the genre of commercial posters to the level of professional arts.
#7
A Poster for Moulin Rouge. img via: wikipedia.org
Influenced by the Japanese etching, Henri became keen on lithography, a simple, fast and cheap method of printing graphics. He used a special pencil or oily China ink on a tablet of polished limestone. Then he etched the stone: wherever oil touched the limestone, the acid did not react. When the artist applied printing ink to the surface, the ink stayed only in places with pencil drawings.
#10
Then the tablet was ready for presswork. To get a multicolor image, the artist used several limestone tablets.
#8
Miss Ida Heath. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, lithography, 1894. img via: commons.wikimedia.org
Toulouse-Lautrec painted with oil, drew with pastel, pencil, charcoal and China ink. For the first time Henri tried a new technique: the dry point engraving and etching in 1898. He created nine pilot sheets, including ‘The Portrait of Mr. X’. Not all the sheets were successful, as they were made on zinc plates. Soon Henri abandoned the painstaking engraving and returned to drawing and lithography.
#11
The Irbit State Museum of Fine Arts
read morehide
00:00
00:00
1x
The Portrait of Mr. X
Creation period
1898
Dimensions
25,9x19,6 cm
sheet: 25,9x19,6 cm; image: 17x10,1 cm
sheet: 25,9x19,6 cm; image: 17x10,1 cm
Technique
dry point engraving
Collection
3
Point your smartphone camera to open in the appOpen in app
Share
