Chevaux et chiens lévriers

Executed in 1881, when Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was just seventeen, the studies in Chevaux et chiens lévriers unfold in a flurry of galloping horses, crouched riders and leaping greyhounds. The muscular body of a horse occupies the centre of the sheet, suspended at the threshold of momentum in the impossible ‘flying gallop’ - legs extended front and back - a pose Toulouse-Lautrec would later reprise in his celebrated lithograph Le Jockey (Wittrock 308; an impression of which is also in the Hegewisch Collection). Surrounding this central figure, sleek hounds dart across the page; their wiry bodies rendered in quick, fluid lines. Equestrian and hunting themes were a natural choice for the young artist, whose father was an avid horseman, hunter, falconer, and racegoer. Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec intended his son to follow his example, reportedly quipping ‘In our family, we christen a child at once and then put him on a horse!’ (H. Perruchot, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cleveland, 1961, pp. 25-36). These pursuits had preoccupied Toulouse-Lautrec’s upbringing; however, his own equestrian ambitions were shattered by the childhood accidents which stunted the growth of his legs. Despite these physical limitations, the equestrian world remained central to his imagination.