Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

A seventeen-year-old boy looked outside the window. He wished he could go out and play with his friends. But because of his disease that caused his bones to break easily, he could not. This disease broke both his legs. Being very bored, he turned over to look for something to do. As he did, he heard a crinkle. It was a piece of paper. "Maybe I should draw," he thought.

He got out a pencil and began drawing after his first picture, he continued to draw more, and more, and more. This opportunity to draw was the one that made him the famous artist, Henri De Toulouse Lautrec.

Henri De Toulouse Lautrec, was born in Albi, France, 1864. He came from a very wealthy family, but he preferred to live among and paint pictures of people who didn't have much money at all. He had one of the wealthiest families with many large estates.

When Henri was thirteen years old, he came upon a rare disease that caused to bones to break easily. He broke both of his legs. While they were healing, he continued to draw more, and more, and more. After they healed his bones no longer grew. Henri had to be careful for the rest of his life. He was unhappy because he was different from everybody else. He tried to solve his problems by drinking too much alcohol. His health never really improved, but he continued painting. Henri began studying his arts in Paris when he was seventeen. He met many artists in his classes. In one of his classes he met Vincent Van Gogh. Henri made a portrait of him and some people say it was the best picture of Van Gogh ever made. Henri did most of his posters and paintings at his Paris nightclub, Moulin Rouge.

Henri liked painting pictures of theaters, dance halls, and circuses. Henri decided not to draw people all dressed up, which most artists did in that time. Henri got some of his ideas formed from Japanese prince. Henri often painted on cardboard because he liked the brown color for a background. Henri also used a form of printing called lithography (the process of making a poster). In his posters, Henri put no shadows.

Henri made posters to advertise dance halls and entertainers. He developed attractive techniques in his posters that they are still using today for advertising. Henri was excellent at showing people's moods. He sometimes cut off people or things in surprising ways to attract people to pictures of his. Henri was the first painter associated with advertising. Even though they were posters, he still treated them as art.

One of Henri's paintings "At the Moulin Rouge" was one of his most famous paintings. In it he developed some skills that made it look quite interesting. He used shallow space in it because inside small places like the Moulin Rouge, there aren't many rooms to look into. It was very emotional because many people in the painting were doing were doing many different things and their faces matched perfectly to their feelings.

Henri died in 1901. He lived to be 37 years old because his health problems and drinking had hurt him. His importance of painting and advertising spread out because of such great detail he put in his posters and paintings. Posters of his are still used today because of the great work he did. People still remember him and his great works of art. Henri De Toulouse Lautrec was a great artist to the world.

Researched written by Jessica W.
Mrs. Sunda's 3rd Grade Gifted Class

Sources:
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec by Ernest Raboff
Great Painters by Piero Ventura