La Goulue

‘While Conder had a natural gift for expressing the charm and radiance of women, my inclination was in the direction of character. I probably made myself a nuisance by bothering all my friends to sit for me for drawings. With these I filled many sketch books. I made then not only during the day, but also on most evenings in the cafes wherever we met. Conder worked largely from memory, and the time we spent in places like the Moulin Rouge was, for his purpose, well spent. …

'Can anyone wonder that youths like Conder and myself were fascinated by this strange and vivid life? To Conder it meant more, even, than to me; for it was in the night life of Paris that he found a great part of his inspiration. He found it too in the flowering orchards and white cliffs of Normandy — a contrast indeed!

'No place gave Conder so much as the Moulin Rouge. Here was an open air café-concert, where one could watch people sitting and walking under coloured lamps and under the stars. Inside the great dancing hall, its walls covered with mirrors, he loved to study the crowds of men and women, moving round and round. Above all there was the dancing of the cancan. Since those days much has been written about the dancers of the Moulin — … The most notorious of the women was La Goulue, an arresting blonde, short and plump, with a handsome, insolent face. She wore her yellow hair piled on top of her head, with a thick, low fringe and curling love locks, and a black ribbon tied around a full, strong throat.’ (W. Rothenstein, Men and Memories, Recollections of William Rothenstein 1872-1900, London, 1931, pp. 73 and 62)