HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

(1864-1901)

Princeteau dans son atelier

Footnotes

Provenance
Albert d'Amade Collection, Libourne, France.
Wildenstein & Co. Inc., New York.
Alex Maguy, Galérie de l'Elysée, Paris, no. 1201.
Mrs. Paul Nathanson Collection, New York; her sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, May 17, 1979, lot 217.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Exhibited
London, Wildenstein Gallery, The French Impressionists and Some of Their Contemporaries, April 24 – May 18, 1963, no. 79 (titled 'Portrait of René Princeteau').
New York, Wildenstein & Co. Inc., Toulouse-Lautrec, February 7 - March 14, 1964, no. 6.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, October 4 – December 2, 1979, no. 6.
London, Hayward Gallery, Toulouse-Lautrec, October 10, 1991 – January 19, 1992, no. 8 (later traveled to Paris).
Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris and the Moulin Rouge, December 14, 2012 – April 2, 2013.

Literature
M.G. Dortu & P. Huisman, Lautrec by Lautrec, New York, 1964, p. 29 (illustrated).
M.G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautec et son oeuvre, vol. II, New York, 1971, no. P. 131 (illustrated p. 61).
G. Caproni & G.M. Sugana, L'opera completa di Toulouse-Lautrec, Milan, 1977, no. 116 (illustrated p. 95; dated 1882).
J. Kinsman & S. Guégan, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris and the Moulin Rouge, Canberra, 2013, p. 41 (illustrated).



Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec first became acquainted with René Princeteau, the subject of the present painting, at the age of seven, when the Toulouse-Lautrec family was staying at the Hôtel Pérey, located near Princeteau's studio. An accomplished painter of equestrian and military subjects–he had been commissioned to paint portraits of various Toulouse-Lautrec men on horseback–Princeteau would become a lifelong mentor and friend to Lautrec. The two bonded over a shared background and similar childhood circumstances; like Lautrec, Princeteau was born into a noble family, and both men experienced hardship living with disabilities. Princeteau was born deaf and mute, and Lautrec suffered with restricted mobility and lifelong pain from a terrible fracture in his leg as a child. Princeteau referred to Lautrec as 'le Petit' and his 'studio fosterling'; even after his training under Princeteau ended, Lautrec referred to himself as 'your faithful pupil' in letters, indicating the enduring affection between the two.

Lautrec received general instruction, particularly in drawing, at Princeteau's studio, most often by reproducing the artist's works. Providing Lautrec with a variety of tasks surrounding the preparation and research of his works, Princeteau declared "The young H. de Toulouse-Lautrec is working valiantly in my studio and has been making miraculous progress. He mimics me like a monkey" (René Princeteau quoted in J. Frey, Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, New York, 1994, p. 118). Lautrec's mother, Adèle, wrote in a letter to his grandmother Gabrielle, "His great pleasure in the evening is to ask M. Princeteau to do drawings for him...He is stimulated by M. Princeteau, who...has had the kindness to draw him an album of sketches, each prettier than the last, and which make it a precious object to keep" (quoted in J. Frey, ibid., p. 56). Lautrec would so faithfully study and copy Princeteau's drawings that, in the words of French art critic Arsène Alexandre, "Only a certain hesitation and inexperience characterize the pupil's work, and sometimes one must look twice to determine which is which" (quoted in J. Frey, ibid., p. 118). It was because of Princeteau's influence that Lautrec fostered his innate talent, learned about artistic professionalism, and aspired to pursue his craft more seriously. Extending beyond the informal yet effective study of his youth, a seventeen-year-old Lautrec would move to Paris in 1881 to study painting full-time, eventually landing a apprenticeship, on Princeteau's recommendation, under acclaimed portraitist Léon Bonnat.

During a trip to Nice in 1881, Lautrec practiced caricature drawings in a journal he kept, now published as the Cahier Zig-Zags. On return to Paris, Lautrec adapted a caricature of himself at the easel into drawings of Princeteau at his studio, which were later adapted into paintings like the present painting. Princeteau dans son atelier is one of two portraits Lautrec painted of Princeteau in 1881. In this painting, Lautrec focuses on portraying an artist amidst his creative process and surrounded by the things that make him happy. Princeteau has been carefully posed against the backdrop of his studio, with props in the background that allude to the artist's love of animals. To Princeteau's right is a tiny painting of a brown horse, perhaps unfinished given the bright white background of the canvas which catches the viewer's eye. Additionally, the artist appears to be playfully engaged with a mounted wolf's head. Despite the richness of the dark colors that dominate the canvas, the scene is light and whimsical, and highlights the close relationship between Lautrec and his mentor and friend. Additionally, the gangly rendering of Princeteau's form and his style of dress are reminiscent of the caricatural works of Honoré Daumier.

Lautrec's use of loose and quick brushstrokes yields a lively composition, akin to the works of his mentor. This painting, such a unique addition to the Lautrec market, is a product of Lautrec's rigorous study of Princeteau's work: "He already possessed his characteristic manner of drawing: energetic, though sometimes lacking in respect for reality. With its vigorous brushwork, his painting–like Princeteau's–was both brilliant and informed. Princeteau's teaching bore fruit: from now on, indeed, the pupil was to surpass his teacher" (quoted in Toulouse-Lautrec, exh. cat., London, 1991, p. 66). The brushwork and perspective used in the present lot, at the time only just developing, were eventually expanded and adapted into Toulouse-Lautrec's formal style.

Although Lautrec moved away from the equestrian depictions of his youth in favor of bright, sometimes gritty and other times almost surreal, scenes of cabarets, dance halls, circuses and bars — i.e., the underbelly of the Parisian arts scene—he would hold on to the influence of Princeteau. Bearing this in mind, Princeteau dans son atelier serves as an ode to a formative figure in Lautrec's development as an artist.