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Lot Essay
In the spring of 1881 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, at that time not yet seventeen years old, left his family estate in Céleyran and arrived in Paris to prepare for his chosen career as a painter. Lautrec entered the atelier of René Princeteau, a sporting artist who was friendly with his father and had known the young man when he was a student at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris in 1872. Despite sharing his teacher's fondness for animal and hunting subjects, Lautrec realized his need for a broader range of instruction. In April 1882 he joined the studio of Léon Bonnat, and remained there until September, when Bonnat closed it down. Lautrec and many of Bonnat's students then transferred to the studio of Fernand Cormon, who specialized in an unusual genre, painting scenes based on archeological findings from prehistory and early antiquity. Cormon, working in the less formal milieu of Montmartre, was progressive in other respects, and encouraged his students to sketch out-of-doors in addition to rendering the requisite academic subjects in the studio. Lautrec remained in Cormon's atelier until the spring of 1887, and during this time initiated friendships with fellow students such as Louis Anquetin and Vincent van Gogh that would be meaningful to him later on.
Relatively few of the academic studies that Lautrec painted in Bonnat's and Cormon's studios have survived, while he often kept and prized the pictures he did at home while on vacation. The present painting is catalogued in Dortu (op. cit.) as an académie, and as such it is vastly superior to other surviving studies. It is a signed, finished work and it displays a remarkably precise and sympathetic characterization of the sitter, in contrast to the more anonymous and sketchy treatment of the studio models seen in other académies.
The sitter bears a strong resemblance to a young man who appears in two other paintings of this period. In 1881 the artist painted a portrait of his childhood friend Etienne Devisme (also spelled Devismes) seated in the Lautrec's family garden at Céleyran (Dortu, no. P.124; coll. Musée d'Albi). Both young men were about the same age, having met in August 1878 when Lautrec was fourteen and convalescing from a broken leg, an accident that would eventually result in his stunted growth. Devisme was a hunchback, and a direct descendant of the 18th century painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Perhaps for the reason that they both suffered from physical disabilities, the two teenagers became close friends. Lautrec wrote to Devisme in late 1879, after he had broken his other leg, requiring an especially painful operation, "Oh, if you were here just five little minutes a day, I'd feel as if I could face my future sufferings with serenity" (quoted in D. Sweetman, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Fin-de-Siècle, London, 1999, p. 207). Their letters, quoted at length in Joyant (op. cit., pp. 42-46 and 48-52), reveal an intensely close relationship, and perhaps Lautrec's most important friendship with a peer during his youth.
In the 1881 portrait done in Céleyran, Devisme is seen in profile; he is bearded, with a high forehead, deep-set eyes and protruding ears. These features also describe the model, seen frontally, in the painting Tête d'homme (1883; Dortu, no. P.202; sale Christie's, New York, 11 November 1992, lot 30) although Dortu does not name him. Both sitters appear to have extremely broad shoulders under their roomy shirts, suggesting the presence of Devisme's misshapen back. The subject in the present painting shares the facial features seen in both of these portraits, although it is unclear if he is a hunchback. Perhaps Lautrec positioned Devisme, taking a low point of view, so that his deformity is hidden, or the artist may have painted him in order way as to minimize this condition. In any case, the sitter appears to be an otherwise strongly built and very vigorous young man. This sympathetic and detailed depiction appears to reflect the artist's admiration for him, signifying a degree of emotional involvement that would seem appropriate if the model were in fact his friend Devisme.
Lautrec had a strong attachment to this painting. He kept it in his collection, and it was in his estate after his death. Moreover, he included a rendering of it in La rousse au caraco blanc (1888; Dortu, no. P.317; coll. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Here Lautrec posed his model Carmen Gaudin in his studio, surrounded by his paintings and other studio paraphernalia. This académie appears propped on the floor against a chair at lower right, so that the male figure appears to look up at Mlle Gaudin. Charles F. Stucky wrote, "one can see the inclusion of this half-length study of a naked, bearded model as a witty reference to the diminutive Lautrec's unrequitted love for his model [Carmen Gaudin]" (exh. cat., op. cit., The Art Institute of Chicago, p. 83). Lautrec appears to have projected himself into the image of this male figure, a transformation that seems more plausible and especially poignant if this man were indeed his close friend Devisme with whom Lautrec shared a life marred by a physical deformity.
Raoul Tapié de Céleyran, the first owner of this painting after the death of the artist, was Lautrec's cousin. He was born in 1868, and at his christening, Lautrec, then only four, is reputed to have made a drawing in the church's register. It is possible that he was also friendly with Devisme, and hence his interest in acquiring this portrait.
Relatively few of the academic studies that Lautrec painted in Bonnat's and Cormon's studios have survived, while he often kept and prized the pictures he did at home while on vacation. The present painting is catalogued in Dortu (op. cit.) as an académie, and as such it is vastly superior to other surviving studies. It is a signed, finished work and it displays a remarkably precise and sympathetic characterization of the sitter, in contrast to the more anonymous and sketchy treatment of the studio models seen in other académies.
The sitter bears a strong resemblance to a young man who appears in two other paintings of this period. In 1881 the artist painted a portrait of his childhood friend Etienne Devisme (also spelled Devismes) seated in the Lautrec's family garden at Céleyran (Dortu, no. P.124; coll. Musée d'Albi). Both young men were about the same age, having met in August 1878 when Lautrec was fourteen and convalescing from a broken leg, an accident that would eventually result in his stunted growth. Devisme was a hunchback, and a direct descendant of the 18th century painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Perhaps for the reason that they both suffered from physical disabilities, the two teenagers became close friends. Lautrec wrote to Devisme in late 1879, after he had broken his other leg, requiring an especially painful operation, "Oh, if you were here just five little minutes a day, I'd feel as if I could face my future sufferings with serenity" (quoted in D. Sweetman, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Fin-de-Siècle, London, 1999, p. 207). Their letters, quoted at length in Joyant (op. cit., pp. 42-46 and 48-52), reveal an intensely close relationship, and perhaps Lautrec's most important friendship with a peer during his youth.
In the 1881 portrait done in Céleyran, Devisme is seen in profile; he is bearded, with a high forehead, deep-set eyes and protruding ears. These features also describe the model, seen frontally, in the painting Tête d'homme (1883; Dortu, no. P.202; sale Christie's, New York, 11 November 1992, lot 30) although Dortu does not name him. Both sitters appear to have extremely broad shoulders under their roomy shirts, suggesting the presence of Devisme's misshapen back. The subject in the present painting shares the facial features seen in both of these portraits, although it is unclear if he is a hunchback. Perhaps Lautrec positioned Devisme, taking a low point of view, so that his deformity is hidden, or the artist may have painted him in order way as to minimize this condition. In any case, the sitter appears to be an otherwise strongly built and very vigorous young man. This sympathetic and detailed depiction appears to reflect the artist's admiration for him, signifying a degree of emotional involvement that would seem appropriate if the model were in fact his friend Devisme.
Lautrec had a strong attachment to this painting. He kept it in his collection, and it was in his estate after his death. Moreover, he included a rendering of it in La rousse au caraco blanc (1888; Dortu, no. P.317; coll. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Here Lautrec posed his model Carmen Gaudin in his studio, surrounded by his paintings and other studio paraphernalia. This académie appears propped on the floor against a chair at lower right, so that the male figure appears to look up at Mlle Gaudin. Charles F. Stucky wrote, "one can see the inclusion of this half-length study of a naked, bearded model as a witty reference to the diminutive Lautrec's unrequitted love for his model [Carmen Gaudin]" (exh. cat., op. cit., The Art Institute of Chicago, p. 83). Lautrec appears to have projected himself into the image of this male figure, a transformation that seems more plausible and especially poignant if this man were indeed his close friend Devisme with whom Lautrec shared a life marred by a physical deformity.
Raoul Tapié de Céleyran, the first owner of this painting after the death of the artist, was Lautrec's cousin. He was born in 1868, and at his christening, Lautrec, then only four, is reputed to have made a drawing in the church's register. It is possible that he was also friendly with Devisme, and hence his interest in acquiring this portrait.