18. The Painter and the Prostitutes
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901) was a Belle Epoque painter who made Parisian nightlife and France’s world of entertainment his specialty. He documented what he saw with keen psychological insight. De Toulouse-Lautrec was among the pioneers of the Post-Impressionist period, and he ranks along the likes of Gauguin and Van Gogh. An extreme simplification of outlines and movement was a hallmark of his paintings, combined with the frequent use of large color areas. The man also had a thing for ladies of the night. As in, he had a strong prostitute habit. So strong, that Toulouse-Lautrec actually lived in brothels. His private life was marked by a fixation on hookers, which spilled over into his art and influenced his paintings. When he was a teenager, Toulouse-Lautrec suffered a pair of accidents, in which he broke his thigh bones.
The mishaps required extensive periods of painful convalescence. To fill the lonely hours, he turned to painting. The accidents left him with atrophied legs, and made walking difficult for the rest of his life. He moved to Paris in the early 1880s, and devoted his life to art and a quest to become an artist. He also devoted himself to the nightlife and prostitutes. When he was not in Parisian brothels, Toulouse-Lautrec frequently visited cabarets in Paris’ Montmartre district, such as the Moulin Rouge. There, he associated with many courtesans – prostitutes, but of a higher caliber. He was such a favored customer of the Moulin Rouge that the cabaret actually reserved a table for him every night, and displayed his paintings. He also liked to frequent the theater, circus, and dance halls, while accompanied by prostitutes.
