NARRATOR:
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec posed his model in a lovely walled garden near his Paris studio. It belonged to a retired photographer friend, Monsieur Foret. This oil on cardboard is one of a series of studies of pale women in the open air, which Lautrec rendered impressionistically, with sumptuous color and exuberant strokes of paint. But unlike his older Impressionist colleagues, who equally emphasized their figures and backgrounds, Lautrec portrayed a solid curvaceous woman, who stands out against the shrubbery around her. Indeed, Lautrec declared:
LAUTREC (ACTOR):
“Landscape is nothing, and should be nothing but an accessory to make the character of the figure more intelligible.”
NARRATOR:
This pensive woman is Lautrec’s favorite model, Carmen Gaudin. He preferred redheads. In fact, Carmen lost her appeal for him when she let her dyed-red hair grow out to its natural brown.
Lautrec was a regular participant in the wild nightlife of Montmartre, the bohemian district of Paris. His biting lithographs caricature Montmartre’s cabaret performers and prostitutes, and like those works, this study also reveals his abiding interest in analyzing and interpreting unstated feelings. Carmen looks away, emotionally dissociated from us and from her surroundings. Perhaps she reflects Lautrec’s own hidden feelings of alienation and hostility. He inherited a condition that made his bones fracture easily, and left his legs permanently shortened. He was only four feet, eleven inches tall. Bitter about his physical deformity, Lautrec was plagued with alcoholism, a major contributor to his death in 1901, at the age of 36.
Red-Headed Woman in the Garden of M. Foret
Summer 1887
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901)
On View
This picture belongs to a small group Toulouse-Lautrec painted outdoors in the garden of a friend during the summer of 1887. Writing to his mother that July, he complained, “The sky is unsettled and is sprinkling us with an unconcern that shows how little feeling the Eternal Father has with regard to outdoor painting.” An irreverent wit, Toulouse-Lautrec is best remembered for his lurid, acidic portrayals of the Parisian demimonde. Here we see a very different side of his production—tender and pensive—capturing the features of his favorite model, Carmen Gaudin. Her flaming hair and pale, sharp features appear again and again in his pictures from the late 1880s.
Details
- Artist Name: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901)
- Title: Red-Headed Woman in the Garden of M. Foret
- Date: Summer 1887
- Medium: Oil on cardboard
- Dimensions: 28-1/8 x 22-7/8 in. (71.4 x 58.1 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1973.37.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Nardus Collection.
Pierre Decourcelle, Paris, by 1914 (sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 16 June 1926, lot 74, ill., as Femme en mauve dans le jardin du père Forest, to);
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris; sold 1926 to];
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, sold (by exchange) 1943 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold 7 July 1943 to];
Mr. and Mrs. Byron C. Foy, New York, (Thelma Chrysler Foy sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 13 May 1959, lot 12, color ill., as Femme rousse dans un jardin, to);
Gordon Guiberson, Bel Air, California, consigned January 1965 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold April, 1965 to];
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia, returned February 1973 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold December 1973 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Pierre Decourcelle, Paris, by 1914 (sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 16 June 1926, lot 74, ill., as Femme en mauve dans le jardin du père Forest, to);
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris; sold 1926 to];
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, sold (by exchange) 1943 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold 7 July 1943 to];
Mr. and Mrs. Byron C. Foy, New York, (Thelma Chrysler Foy sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 13 May 1959, lot 12, color ill., as Femme rousse dans un jardin, to);
Gordon Guiberson, Bel Air, California, consigned January 1965 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold April, 1965 to];
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia, returned February 1973 to;
[Wildenstein & Co., New York, sold December 1973 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Three Centuries of French Art: Selections from The Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art and the Norton Simon Foundation
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1974-10-19 to 1976-06-15
- Schaub-Kach, Emile, Psychanalyse d'un peintre moderne: Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, pp. 178, 190
- Jourdain, Francis, Lautrec,pl. 6
- Lassaigne, Jacques, Toulouse-Lautrec,pl. 52 pp. 52, 165
- Kern, Walter, Lautrec,pl. 6
- The Connoisseur, p. 65
- The French Impressionists in Southern California: Paintings, Sculptures and Prints in Public Collections. A Guide Book and Catalogue,
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1,2006,
- Adhémar, Jean, Toulouse-Lautrec, p. 225
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 157
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 1004 p. 361
- Caproni, G.; and G. Sugana, L'opera completa di Toulouse-Lautrec,no. 233 p. 102
- Steadman, David W., The Connoisseur,fig. 4 p. 223
- Dortu, M. G., Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre,no. P342
- Joyant, Maurice, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901 peintre, pp. 75, 267
- Stuckey, Charles, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings,under no. 39, fig. 1 p. 149
Additional Artwork by Artist
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.