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Lot Essay
The two actresses featured in this print are Ève Lavallière (1866-1929), dressed in black in the foreground, and to her right Marcelle Lender (1862-1926).
Lavallière’s story is as tragic and colorful as any of the other performers with whom she shared a stage. Her staid provincial upbringing was violently interrupted when her father shot her mother during an argument, before turning the gun on himself – an act which Ève witnessed. Shortly thereafter she joined a travelling theatre which eventually made its way to Paris, where she became an actress in the Théâtre des Variétés. Her career was cut short by illness in 1917, and from then on she became increasingly religious. She ultimately became a noteworthy Catholic penitent and member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and died destitute in 1929, having distributed most of her wealth (circa one million gold francs) to the poor in Tunisia.
Marcelle Lender was one of the most beloved stars of the opéra bouffe, a type of light opera that flourished in Paris from the mid-nineteenth century. Beginning in 1899, Lender performed regularly in the Théâtre des Variétés in Montmartre, where she specialized in roles featuring pantomime and dance. Lender first caught Lautrec’s attention in 1893, and his interest blossomed into an obsession when she stared in Chilpéric two years later. Lender’s performance of a Spanish-style bolero in the second act enchanted him, and it was reported that he attended twenty performances, sitting in the same seat, arriving just in time to see her dance. Unlike Avril or Guilbert, Lender never became a close friend. He depicted her numerous times in print and oil, including the masterpiece Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero (1895-96). Lautrec offered her the painting as a gift, but it was declined. Lender remarked to a friend that she thought Lautrec a ‘horrible man’, an opinion no doubt strengthened by one encounter where they were introduced at dinner after a performance, whereupon Lautrec sat down at her table uninvited and proceeded to eat off her plate.
[Adapted from Joanna Wendel, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2019, pp. 65-7]
Of the edition of twenty, Wittrock cites fourteen impressions of this print in public collections.
Lavallière’s story is as tragic and colorful as any of the other performers with whom she shared a stage. Her staid provincial upbringing was violently interrupted when her father shot her mother during an argument, before turning the gun on himself – an act which Ève witnessed. Shortly thereafter she joined a travelling theatre which eventually made its way to Paris, where she became an actress in the Théâtre des Variétés. Her career was cut short by illness in 1917, and from then on she became increasingly religious. She ultimately became a noteworthy Catholic penitent and member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and died destitute in 1929, having distributed most of her wealth (circa one million gold francs) to the poor in Tunisia.
Marcelle Lender was one of the most beloved stars of the opéra bouffe, a type of light opera that flourished in Paris from the mid-nineteenth century. Beginning in 1899, Lender performed regularly in the Théâtre des Variétés in Montmartre, where she specialized in roles featuring pantomime and dance. Lender first caught Lautrec’s attention in 1893, and his interest blossomed into an obsession when she stared in Chilpéric two years later. Lender’s performance of a Spanish-style bolero in the second act enchanted him, and it was reported that he attended twenty performances, sitting in the same seat, arriving just in time to see her dance. Unlike Avril or Guilbert, Lender never became a close friend. He depicted her numerous times in print and oil, including the masterpiece Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero (1895-96). Lautrec offered her the painting as a gift, but it was declined. Lender remarked to a friend that she thought Lautrec a ‘horrible man’, an opinion no doubt strengthened by one encounter where they were introduced at dinner after a performance, whereupon Lautrec sat down at her table uninvited and proceeded to eat off her plate.
[Adapted from Joanna Wendel, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2019, pp. 65-7]
Of the edition of twenty, Wittrock cites fourteen impressions of this print in public collections.