A Corner of the Moulin de la Galette

1892

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Artist, French, 1864 - 1901

Seven people with cream-white skin crowd together, sitting at or standing among tables in an interior space in this vertical painting. The composition is dominated by shades of blue and pale green. On the right side and closest to us, a woman sits opposite a man at a butter-yellow table, both facing our left in profile. The table extends in from the right, almost halfway up the canvas. The pair are shown from the knees up and span most of the height of the painting. The woman wears a long, teal-blue jacket over a peanut-brown skirt and a frilled cap topped with a pine-green bow. The man wears an olive-green bowler and cinnamon-brown coat, and rests one arm on the table. Two glasses sit on the table in front of them. In the center of the painting, a woman wearing a long, black coat stands on the far side of the table, her head nearly reaching the top edge of the composition. Her body is angled slightly to our right and she gazes off in that direction. Beyond her is another table with two men partly obscured by the couple in front of us. One sitting at the table has flame-red hair topped with a round cap, and a portion of his aqua and peacock-blue striped jacket is visible. Near him, another person in a dark garment with a high collar stands with their back to us, most of the head cropped by the top edge. Along the left side, two women stand one behind the other with their backs to us. The woman closest to us looks away, wearing a short, parchment-white jacket over an aquamarine-blue skirt. The jacket is belted at the waist and the collar, upper back, and long cuffs are rust red. The woman beyond her turns her head to our right in profile, and wears a light blue jacket and pale green skirt. The features and clothing of each person in the scene is outlined in charcoal gray. The artist signed the painting in the upper right corner, “HTLautrec,” with the H, T, and L interlocking to make a monogram.

Media Options

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The seamy underside of the Parisian demimonde, populated by the singers, dancers, and patrons of Montmartre nightclubs was Toulouse–Lautrec's principal subject. Scion of one of France's great aristocratic families, Lautrec suffered physical maladies and stunted growth due to genetic factors. He was encouraged to draw during his long convalescences and permitted professional training in an academic studio, which he deserted to embrace modernism. Lautrec particularly admired Degas and emulated his unusual perspectives and gritty social realism. He mastered the new medium of color lithography and produced an impressive body of posters and printed illustrations that share the incisive linear quality of the design of this painting.

Isolated by his painful physical deformity, Lautrec became an alcoholic and a denizen of dance halls and nightclubs in Montmartre, a poor working–class neighborhood untouched by Baron Haussmann's renovations of Paris. Insight gained from his handicap and his emotional remoteness from his subjects gave his depictions special force, bitterness, and sympathy, while the artifice of his preferred settings and subjects could alter reality amusingly or grotesquely in his work. Lautrec was an observer, a voyeur rather than a participant, and alienation is endemic even in the crowded Corner of the Moulin de la Galette.

On View

East Building Mezzanine, Gallery 217-C

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on cardboard

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 100 x 89.2 cm (39 3/8 x 35 1/8 in.)
    framed: 132.4 x 122.6 cm (52 1/8 x 48 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.67

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

François Depeaux [1853-1920], Rouen; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, 31 May - 1 June 1906, no. 74, as Intérieur de cabaret); purchased by (Durand-Ruel)[1] probably for Otto Gerstenberg [1848-1935], Berlin; by inheritance to his daughter, Margarethe Scharf; sold 1951 to (Carstairs Gallery, New York);[2] sold 20 March 1951 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[3] bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Annotated sales catalogue, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files).
[2] Gerstenberg's great-granddaughter, Julietta Scharf, kindly shared information about her family's ownership of the painting in e-mails of 20 October and 5 November 2009 (in NGA curatorial files). Documentation from her grandmother, Margarethe Scharf, indicates that Otto Gerstenberg acquired the painting at the 1906 sale, and that Margarethe inherited the painting on her father's death. After Margarethe lent the painting to an exhibition at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen in 1936, the director of that museum offered to store it for her during World War II. After the war, Margarethe asked the director to arrange for it to be sold. See also Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Julietta Scharf, "Die Sammlung Otto Gerstenberg in Berlin," in Die Moderne und ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in Deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik, Andrea Pophanken and Felix Billeter, eds., Berlin, 2001: 183. Incorrectly, M.G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre, 6 vols., New York, 1971: 2:262, does not include Gerstenberg in his provenance for the painting.
[3] Chester Dale papers, in NGA curatorial files

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1893

  • 9me Salon des Indépendants, Paris, 1893, no. 1243, as Un coin du Moulin de la Galette.

1936

  • [exhibition], Staten Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 1936.

1959

  • Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1994

  • Toulouse-Lautrec: Marcelle Lender in "Chilpéric", National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1994-1995, not in brochure.

2010

  • From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1913

  • Coquiot, Gustave. Lautrec. Paris, 1913:repro. p. 69.

1920

  • Duret, Thédore. Lautrec. Paris, 1920:63.

1921

  • Coquiot, Gustave. Lautrec. Paris, 1921:209.

1923

  • Brook, Alexander. "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec," The Arts IV (Sept. 1923):149, repro.

1926

  • Joyant, Maurice. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. 2 vols. Paris, 1926-1927:I:126, 276, repro., II:145.

1939

  • Lassaigne, Jacques. Toulouse-Lautrec. Translated by Mary Chamot. Paris, 1939: no. 85, repro.

1952

  • McBride. Henry. "Chesterdale's Way." Art News 51, no. 9 (December 1952): 21, repro.

  • Jourdain, Francis. T-Lautrec: Essai sur Toulouse Lautrec. Paris, 1952: no. 51, repro.

1953

  • Hunter, Sam.Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New York, 1953: plate 13.

  • Walker, John. "Moulin de la Galette." Ladies Home Journal (June 1953):52+, repro.

1956

  • Cooper, Douglas. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New York, 1956: 104, reproo.

1959

  • "50 of the most fashionable pictures in the world." Art News 58 (April 1959):30, repro.

1960

  • Fiala, Vlastimil. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Prague, 1960:no. 25, repro.

1965

  • Cooke, H. Lester. "A Plunger in the Market: Chester Dale and his Collection." Art in America. 53, no. 2 (April 1965):48-55, repro.

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 132, repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "How Great is the Dale Collection?" Art News 64 (May 1965):40-43, 51-53, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 131.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:474, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 118, repro.

1969

  • Caproni, Giorgio and G.M. Sugana. L'opera completa di Toulouse-Lautrec. Milan, 1969: no. 310, repro.

  • Fermigier, André. Toulouse-Lautrec. Translated by Paul Stevenson. London, 1969:250, repro. 79.

1971

  • Dortu, M.G. Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre. 6 vols. New York, 1971:II:P429, repro.

1973

  • Reff, Theodore. "Love and Death in Picasso's Early Work." Art Forum XI (May 1973):repro. p. 69.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 350, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 534-535, repro.

1978

  • Adriani, Götz. Toulouse-Lautrec und das Paris um 1900. Cologne, 1978: repro. p. 75.

  • Murray, Gale Barbara. "Problems in the Chronology and volutino of Style and Subject Matter in the Art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1878-1891." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1978: 334-335, n. 16.

1979

  • Stuckey, Charles F. Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. Chicago, 1979:209, repro.

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 122, pl. 109.

1980

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1980: no. 290, 429, repro. p. 321

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 530, no. 798, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 400, repro.

1991

  • Jarrassé, Dominique. Henri de Taoulouse-Lautrec-Monfa: Entre le mythe et la modernité. Marseille, 1991: repro. 19.

  • Néret, Gilles. Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1991:80, repro. p. 79.

  • O'Connor, Patrick. Nightlife of Paris. New York, 1991:64, repro. plate 21

  • Schimmel, Herbert D., ed. The Letters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Oxford, 1991:205.

  • Stevenson, Lesley. H. de Toulouse Lautrec. London, 1991:119, repro. p. 102

1992

  • Durozoi, Gérard. Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1992:94, no. 26, repro.

  • Milner, Frank. Toulouse-Lautrec. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1992: 96, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 202, repro.

1997

  • Tamura, Ryuichi. Lautrec Story. Japan, 1997: 16, repro.

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1997: no. 281, repro.

2001

  • Gaehtgens, Thomas W. and Julietta Scharf, "Die Sammlung Otto Gerstenberg in Berlin," in Die Moderne und Ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in Deutschem Privatbesitz. Berlin, 2001:183

  • Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 58-59, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 394-395, no. 328, color repro.

2006

  • Brettell, Richard R., and Stephen F. Eisenman. Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum. New Haven and London, 2006: 464, fig. 124a.

Inscriptions

upper right: HTLautrec (HTL in ligature)

Wikidata ID

Q20190306

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