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Overview

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.

Inscription

upper right: HTLautrec (HTL in ligature)

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

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
Jourdain, Francis. T-Lautrec: Essai sur Toulouse Lautrec. Paris, 1952: no. 51, repro.
1952
McBride. Henry. "Chesterdale's Way." Art News 51, no. 9 (December 1952): 21, repro.
1953
Hunter, Sam.Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New York, 1953: plate 13.
1953
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.
1965
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 132, repro.
1965
Frankfurter, Alfred. "How Great is the Dale Collection?" Art News 64 (May 1965):40-43, 51-53, repro.
1965
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.
1969
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.
1975
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.
1978
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.
1979
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.
1991
Néret, Gilles. Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1991:80, repro. p. 79.
1991
O'Connor, Patrick. Nightlife of Paris. New York, 1991:64, repro. plate 21
1991
Schimmel, Herbert D., ed. The Letters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Oxford, 1991:205.
1991
Stevenson, Lesley. H. de Toulouse Lautrec. London, 1991:119, repro. p. 102
1992
Durozoi, Gérard. Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1992:94, no. 26, repro.
1992
Milner, Frank. Toulouse-Lautrec. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1992: 96, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 202, repro.
1997
Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1997: no. 281, repro.
1997
Tamura, Ryuichi. Lautrec Story. Japan, 1997: 16, 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
2001
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.
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