Toulouse-Lautrec at Boston MFA: Disappointing Dollop

CAFÉ AND CABARET: Toulouse-Lautrec’s Paris
At: Museum of Fine Arts Boston,

Through Aug. 8, 2010

Look, the guy died from alcoholism and syphilis. It took him 36 short years to burn his candle down to the wick. But what a tall, brilliant flame was cast by such a diminutive, bedeviled artist.

Henri Raymond Marie de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa (1864-1901) was a misfit from birth, born with a congenital deformity that stunted his growth (to a height of about 4 1/2 feet), disfigured his legs, and gave him a world of pain. Absinthe took care of the pain. Hanging out with dance hall girls and prostitutes took care of more worldly needs. And gave him colorful subjects to fill his canvases and posters during Paris’s “belle epoch,” the giddy final decade of the 19th century.
 
 The Boston Museum of Fine Arts is currently hosting a canapé of an exhibit that barely does justice to Henri’s talent. France has produced a ton of world-class artists. Few of them had the bold signature style of Toulouse-Lautrec. His lithographs captured the racy seediness, the earthy debauchery, of one of Paris’s most bohemian districts, Monmartre.
 
In a subculture of eccentric artists, dancers, writers, poets, prostitutes, and showgirls, Henri’s dwarfish appearance and prodigious artistic output was a match. Talented and alienated, he would never fit into the aristocratic society into which he was born. Give him a brothel or a dance hall, voilà, he was in his element - and could document it with an unerring eye to skewer and romanticize at the same time.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s signature works were the commercial lithographs he created for the Moulin Rouge and other popular nightclubs and performers in Monmartre, Using flat colors similar to those on Japanese woodblock prints that were popular in salons at the time, his posters often featured one or two main figures, slightly caricatured with the subjects’ mannerisms or attire, and emblazoned with text he designed to add wallop to the piece.
 
There are only two of these in this petite exhibit in one of the museum’s hallway. “Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret,” (1893 lithograph printed before the lettering and background details were added) gives you a whiff of his genius. A solitary small 1891 oil and mixed media painting,"At the Cafe La Mie," gives one the idea of his style.

With a title of “Café and Cabaret: Toulouse-Lautrec’s Paris,” you expect more than a scanty appetizer. ( A review in a Boston newspaper gave the impression of a much larger presence of the artist's work.) Half a dozen smaller examples of his work just don’t do justice to the artist. Toulouse-Lautrec created an estimated 737 canvases, 275 watercolors, 363 prints and posters, and 5,084 drawings. Why, then, devote one measly hallway to his output?

Credit the museum’s curators for including several oils and lithographs done by his contemporaries in the exhibit that by comparison underscore the uniqueness of Toulouse-Lautrec’s art. It’s a shame the Museum of Fine Arts gives Henri such short shrift.

Photos by Paul Tamburello- handheld camera, no flash, available light, somewhat fuzzy, my apologies, Henri... I wish I could say it  was the absinthe.

Comments

[Susaan]

Thanks for including the link to the prints. Very nice.

[Bambi]

Have you considered writing for the Globe or are you too ruthlessly honest? I thought the Egypt show magnificent; if you write about that, please send it on...... I sent your two Louisiana pieces to my friend whose daughter and husband live there and she was SO appreciative.

[Alice]

Interesting angle on what the museum didn't do

[Ray]

I enjoy reading and seeing art, especially the impressionists and post folk. Your piece was a pleasure and I plan to take My spouse to see the show as soon asI find time. Nice job as I've found most of your work to be.