.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
By late February and early March of 1899, Lautrec's alcoholism had become so injurious to his health and mental stability that his despairing mother had him committed against his will to the clinic of Dr. Reneé Sémelaigne in Neuilly. He remained there for the next eleven weeks. His confinement was controversial and a lively debate played out in the press, embarrassing his family. At first Lautrec sketched on whatever came to hand, but in late March he received from his friend Maurice Joyant some supplies he had requested: a box of watercolors and brushes, colored crayons, sepia and India ink, and a ream of quality paper. Lautrec decided that he would undertake a series of drawings that were so disciplined and masterly that they would serve as indisputable proof to Dr. Sémelaigne that he had regained control of his life, and could be released.
Lautrec chose the circus as his theme--the subject was close to his heart, and evoked memories going back to his childhood. Furthermore, the spectacle of the circus was all the rage in Paris during the 1890s, and he could look back to some immediate precedents in the work of Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Georges Seurat. His finest circus painting, Au Cirque Fernando, l'écuyère, 1888 (Dortu, no. P.312; coll. The Art Institute of Chicago), hung in the large corridor at the popular Moulin Rouge in Montmartre (for a related 1888 circus scene, see Christie's Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art, 2 May 2006, lot 15). Lautrec, who first studied under the equestrian painter René Princeteau, was expert at drawing horses and figures. The long years of practice that he had put into these subjects proved crucial to the success of his project, for he had no access to models at the clinic or nearby; the local troupe was on tour. He drew his circus scenes entirely from memory and imagination. Lautrec began the drawings by the end of March, and in a letter dated 12 April he wrote to his friend Joseph Albert, "Tell Maurice [Joyant] his album is growing" (Letters, no. 566).
The petite and shapely rider in this drawing appears in four other scenes in Au cirque, but has not been identified. She was apparently a skilled performer on horseback; elsewhere, in more comic equestrian acts, Lautrec featured a clownesse, the aging and now out-of-shape gymnast known as Cha-U-Kao, whose stage name was derived from the popular dance chahut-chaos ("noise and chaos"). The clown in the present drawing is Lautrec's British friend George Footit, who had performed at the Nouveau Cirque in a comic act with a black clown and dancer known as Chocolat. "George Footit and Henry loved to bet on almost everything," Julia Frey recounts. "Footit bet Henry that he could get into his bedroom on the third floor of his building without using the staircase. Henry and his friends watched amazed while Footit free-climbed up the front of the building, scrambling from crevice to ledge, and finally made it through the window" (quoted in Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, London, 1994, p. 401). Recalling friends and places was crucial to Lautrec as he worked on Au cirque; fits of amnesia had been one of the symptoms of his physical breakdown, and he was now busy reclaiming his past, as well as his health, through his circus drawings.
Please see note to the following lot.
Lautrec chose the circus as his theme--the subject was close to his heart, and evoked memories going back to his childhood. Furthermore, the spectacle of the circus was all the rage in Paris during the 1890s, and he could look back to some immediate precedents in the work of Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Georges Seurat. His finest circus painting, Au Cirque Fernando, l'écuyère, 1888 (Dortu, no. P.312; coll. The Art Institute of Chicago), hung in the large corridor at the popular Moulin Rouge in Montmartre (for a related 1888 circus scene, see Christie's Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art, 2 May 2006, lot 15). Lautrec, who first studied under the equestrian painter René Princeteau, was expert at drawing horses and figures. The long years of practice that he had put into these subjects proved crucial to the success of his project, for he had no access to models at the clinic or nearby; the local troupe was on tour. He drew his circus scenes entirely from memory and imagination. Lautrec began the drawings by the end of March, and in a letter dated 12 April he wrote to his friend Joseph Albert, "Tell Maurice [Joyant] his album is growing" (Letters, no. 566).
The petite and shapely rider in this drawing appears in four other scenes in Au cirque, but has not been identified. She was apparently a skilled performer on horseback; elsewhere, in more comic equestrian acts, Lautrec featured a clownesse, the aging and now out-of-shape gymnast known as Cha-U-Kao, whose stage name was derived from the popular dance chahut-chaos ("noise and chaos"). The clown in the present drawing is Lautrec's British friend George Footit, who had performed at the Nouveau Cirque in a comic act with a black clown and dancer known as Chocolat. "George Footit and Henry loved to bet on almost everything," Julia Frey recounts. "Footit bet Henry that he could get into his bedroom on the third floor of his building without using the staircase. Henry and his friends watched amazed while Footit free-climbed up the front of the building, scrambling from crevice to ledge, and finally made it through the window" (quoted in Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, London, 1994, p. 401). Recalling friends and places was crucial to Lautrec as he worked on Au cirque; fits of amnesia had been one of the symptoms of his physical breakdown, and he was now busy reclaiming his past, as well as his health, through his circus drawings.
Please see note to the following lot.