Dressage Des Nouvelles, Par Valentin Le Desosse, 1890

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901) was a French artist who vividly captured the 19th century’s festive Parisian nightlife in paintings and posters. Toulouse-Lautrec began his artistic career when, as a teenager, he injured both of his legs and immersed himself in art during his long convalescence. In adulthood, he joined the culture of Paris’ bohemian Montmartre section, and painted its spectacle of circuses, dance halls, nightclubs and racetracks, as well as the artists, streetwalkers, writers, aristocrats and dancers he befriended. He began to exhibit widely, and Vincent Van Gogh’s brother Theo was one of his patrons. Institutionalized for alcoholism, he created an incredible array of circus drawings from memory during his confinement.