Catherine Russell 
Toulouse-Lautrec Drawings 

Toulouse-Lautrec painted quickly, using its neutral tone and conveying action and atmosphere in a few economical strokes. In later years graphic works took precedence and his paintings were often studies for lithographs. In Toulouse-Lautrec’s drawings of dancers and horses, his dancers appear like from a few twists and whirls. He does not draw the dancer, but her movement. He is best known as a storyteller of the nightlife of Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec did not only picture the world of the dancers and prostitutes from outside view: he just lived in that world. He frequently charged a room in a brothel, where he made drawings of the prostitutes and their clientele. The men in his drawings and posters are often caricatures but, by contrast, the women are drawn with much warmth and empathy; with only a few pencil strokes Toulouse-Lautrec renders their mood and a character.