Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, perhaps the greatest graphic artist of his time, is most widely remembered for his bold, colourful posters of Parisian entertainers. The son of an eccentric aristocrat, he spent his childhood at the family chateau in south-west France, where he suffered the falls which broke both his legs and stunted his growth.
By the time he moved to Paris at the age of 17, he was ill-proportioned and dwarfish. Despite his upper-class background, Lautrec felt most at home in the nightclubs, dance-halls and brothels of Paris, where he spent his time drinking and drawing his friends and associates: his art centres entirely around the narrow life he led.
He reached his peak both as a painter and poster artist in the early s before alcoholism took its toll. He died a broken, pathetic figure at the age of Little Jewel:. As a child, he was so attractive and charming that he was nicknamed 'Little Jewel'. Lautrec's mother supported him throughout his life, moving to Paris with him when he took up painting and caring for him as an alcoholic.
He painted this portrait of the Countess in Count Alphonse:. Lautrec's father was an outrageous eccentric, who enjoyed dressing up in chain mail like his military ancestors. He devoted himself to hunting and lechery, abandoning his wife and son for long periods. He grew up in one of the oldest families in France, with ancestors who had fought in the crusades. The French aristocracy had little political power by the late 19th century, but the Lautrec family was very wealthy and kept apartments in Paris as well as country estates around Albi, not far from Toulouse in southwest France.
However, the child's aristocratic stock did him much more harm than good. Though his parents seemed complete opposites - his father, a wild eccentric hunter of women as well as animals; his mother, quiet and devout - they were in fact first cousins.
