Museo dell’Ara Pacis opens major exhibit of Toulouse-Lautrec works

PanARMENIAN.Net - A major exhibition devoted to Toulouse-Lautrec, the quintessential bohemian painter of fin-de-siècle Paris, is opening at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis in Rome. The show features around 170 works from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, which span the artist’s career from 1891 to 1900, shortly before he died prematurely at the age of thirty-six, Art Daily reports.

Promoted by Roma Capitale – Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage, produced by Arthemisia Group and organized by Zètema Progetto Cultura, the exhibition brings to Rome the pick of the Toulouse-Lautrec Collection at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts (Szépművészeti Múzeum) – one of the most important in Europe, with masterworks ranging from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The Rome exhibition, curated by Zsuzsa Gonda and Kata Bodor, displays around 170 lithographs from the collection (including eight large-format posters and two covers of albums, each composed of about 10 lithographs, devoted to the French singer, actress and writer Yvette Guilbert), which will be on display at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis from 4 December 2015 to 8 May 2016.

The show is intended to give visitors a complete picture of Toulouse-Lautrec’s graphic output through posters, illustrations, sheet music covers and playbills, some of which are absolute rarities, since they were printed in signed and numbered limited editions with a dedication by the artist.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is considered the most celebrated master of the print and poster in the Parisian Belle Époque period. One of the most distinguishing features of his art is his portrayal of the most diverse aspects of humanity in everyday or entertaining situations, which the French bourgeoisie found fascinating. He drew most of his inspiration from Montmartre in Paris, and the majority of his works depict the nightlife and popular haunts in this quarter. They are snapshots of the quotidian rendered with great immediacy. In next to no time he became one of the most sought-after illustrators and draughtsmen in Paris, receiving commissions for posters advertising plays, ballets and shows, and for illustrations that appeared in leading contemporary magazines like Le Rire.

In addition to the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, the exhibition includes rare photos and film clips from the beginning of the 20th century which evoke the Parisian Belle Époque. There is also an interactive app that enables the visitor to learn about lithography and printing techniques at the end of the 19th century, from colour and large-scale reproduction to the birth of the advertising poster, which Henri anticipated with his art.

The exhibition is sponsored by Generali Italia, with Codognotto as technical sponsor and Trenitalia as partner in the initiative.

The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections that cover the great French painter’s formative artistic and intellectual experiences, from the first works executed under the guidance of his teacher René Princeteau, to those of his early period in Paris, which are strongly indebted to Montmartre and Léon Bonnat and Fernand Cormon. The trajectory begins with his realistic academic studies, develops through the humorous and avant-garde influences of the Artistes Incohérents, and culminates in the Post-Impressionist works executed after his encounter with Théo van Rysselberghe and the painting of Seurat, Gauguin and Van Gogh.