TOULOUSE-LAUTREC – the spirit of Montmartre / Yvette Guilbert – Madame Arthur

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)- paintings, posters and drawings of Cafés, Cabarets, and Dance Halls. Music: Yvette Guilbert – Madame Arthur The art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) is inseparable from Montmartre, the working-class district on the outskirts of Paris where the artist lived for most of his career. In the late nineteenth century, Montmartre became the heart of a daring, often racy, entertainment industry that lured thrill-seeking Parisians to its dance halls and cabarets, circuses and brothels. Toulouse-Lautrec always harboured a fascination with the world of the theatres and cafés-concerts of Paris, which he depicted in numerous works. The famous singer Yvette Guilbert, a genuine star of the Divan Japonais, Ambassadeurs and Moulin Rouge cabarets in fin-de-siècle Paris, had met Toulouse-Lautrec at the beginning of 1893 had become one of the painter’s favourite subjects. Yvette Guilbert (1867‒1944) debuted on stage in 1887 as an actress in a traditional theater in Paris, but she soon moved to Montmartre's more avant-garde performance venues. With her unconventional singing voice, and an unfashionably tall and thin figure, Guilbert was an unlikely star of Montmartre's cafés-concerts. However, her success largely came from her ability to turn these unexceptional qualities into attributes. Rather than singing in a straightforward manner, Guilbert would half-sing, half-speak her ditties, earning her the title of the "diseuse fin de siècle" (end-of-the-century teller). Similarly, rather than concealing her lanky figure, Guilbert wore long black gloves and simple dresses with plunging necklines to exaggerate it.