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A woman in costume sitting on a trapeze bar

Seen from below and turned slightly to the right, a woman in a short pink acrobat’s dress and pale blue tights sits on a trapeze bar. Her arms are raised, apparently clutching the trapeze ropes, although the ropes are not shown. She wears a matching pink feather headdress in her red hair and closes her eyes tilting her head downward slightly. Quick blue brushstrokes indicate the background directly behind her, but this fades to the plain brown surface of the board on which the scene is painted.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1934.34
People
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French (Albi 1864 - 1901 Malromé)
Title
Trapeze Artist at the Medrano Circus
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1887-1888
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/298057

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gouache on cardboard
Dimensions
79.7 x 60.4 cm (31 3/8 x 23 3/4 in.)
frame: 99.1 x 80 x 7 cm (39 x 31 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: upper right, graphite: HTLautrec [HTL combined into one letter, encircled]
  • inscription: verso, upper left, blue chalk: 30/101
  • label: verso, lower left, black ink: Fogg Art Museum [printed] / P.S. 22-B [graphite] / Artist [printed] Toulouse-Lautrec / Subject [printed] Trapeze Artist / No. [printed] 1934.34 / Coburn Bequest
  • inscription: verso, upper left center, graphite, faded: B [encircled]
  • inscription: verso, upper center, red chalk: No 16 [?]
  • label: verso, upper center, left side of label partially ripped, black ink: H. Toulouse-Lautrec / "La Trapeziste" / Mrs H.H. Coburn / Chicago, ILL
  • label: verso, upper center, blue ink: Toulouse-Lautrec / 1864- / 1901 / La Trapéziste / [further writing in faded brown ink, illegible]
  • label: verso, upper center, label with red border, brown ink: 1909 Toulouse Lautrec / La Trapéziste/ nbbb [?]
  • label: verso, upper center, label is mostly gone, black ink: Student Acrobat
  • label: verso, upper right, round export stamp on paper, black ink: DOUANE DE PARIS / BATIGNOLLES
  • inscription: verso, upper right, white chalk: 117
  • label: verso, upper right, printed in black ink: 733
  • label: verso, lower center right, black ink: No [printed] 733 / T Lautrec / La Trapéziste / VESS
  • stamp: verso, upper center, round export stamp in black ink, partially faded and miss-stamped: DOUANES / FRANÇAISES/ [?] de Paris Batignolles
  • stamp: verso, upper left, black ink: PHOTO
  • inscription: verso, upper right, graphite: 6

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
G. Bernheim. Mrs. Annie S. Coburn, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1934.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Dortu P.489

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Annie Swan Coburn
Accession Year
1934
Object Number
1934.34
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • A. Brook, "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec", The Arts (September 1923), ill. p. 159
  • Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901 (Paris, France, 1926), vol. I, p. 280
  • Gerstle Mack, Toulouse-Lautrec, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, NY, 1938), p. 216
  • M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec, Editions du Chêne (Paris, France, 1952), repr. p. 7
  • M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre (New York, NY, 1971), vol II, no. P.489 p. 300, repr. p. 301
  • James N. Carpenter, Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1974), p. 36, cat. 20, ill.
  • Marjorie B. Cohn, Wash and Gouache: A Study of the Development of the Materials of Watercolor, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1977), cat. no. 59 p. 109
  • Jean Sagne, Toulouse-Lautrec au cirque, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1991), p. 96, repr. p. 97
  • Edward Saywell, "Guide to Drawing Terms and Techniques", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1998), vol. VI, no. 2, pp. 30-39, p. 32 under "Gouache"
  • Richard Thomson and Philip Dennis Cate, Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Art Institute of Chicago (Washington DC / Chicago IL, 2005), p. 240, repr. p. 243 as fig. 262, no. 262 in checklist p. 258
  • Christopher Lloyd, Impressionism: Pastels, Watercolors, Drawings, exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI, 2011), pp. 29, 67, detail repr. p. 52, repr. p. 155 as pl. 110, listed on p. 172 under "works in the exhibition"
  • Roland Halbert, La Saison qui Danse ou Carnet de Zigzags pour Toulouse-Lautrec, Editions Multilingues Fraction (Paris, 2016), repr. p. 80, cover
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), pp. 205-206, repr. p. 202 as fig. 1

Exhibition History

  • Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/25/1974 - 06/16/1974
  • Wash and Gouache: A Study of the Development of the Materials of Watercolor, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/12/1977 - 06/22/1977
  • Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 03/20/2005 - 06/12/2005; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 07/16/2005 - 10/10/2005
  • Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, 10/14/2011 - 01/08/2012

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu