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Lot Essay
Toulouse-Lautrec's fascination with the dancer Marcelle Lender began when he portrayed her in his lithographs for the left-wing magazine L'Escarmouche ("The Skirmish") in 1893. This infatuation continued for two years, during which he produced fifteen lithographs and the large painting of 1896, Chilpéric (Marcelle Lender dansant le boléro dans 'Chilpéric') (Dortu, vol. III, no. P.627; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., coll. Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney). This drawing is a study for the lithograph Aux Variétés: Mlle Lender et Brasseur.
Lautrec's interest in Marcelle was not reciprocated. Julia Frey has recounted: "Like La Goulue, Jane Avril and Yvette Guilbert, Marcelle Lender had a violent, unleashed stage presence, attracting...attention and admiration with her sexual energy. However, despite Henry's repeated attempts to get to know her, she never felt any positive interest in him" (in Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, London, 1994, p. 357).
Lautrec's interest in Marcelle was not reciprocated. Julia Frey has recounted: "Like La Goulue, Jane Avril and Yvette Guilbert, Marcelle Lender had a violent, unleashed stage presence, attracting...attention and admiration with her sexual energy. However, despite Henry's repeated attempts to get to know her, she never felt any positive interest in him" (in Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, London, 1994, p. 357).