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Who is... Toulouse Lautrec?
At the Moulin Rouge
John Leguizamo played him in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! With his brilliantly painted lithographs, posters and portraits of the dance halls, the cabarets, the racetracks and the nightclubs, Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the most artistic documenters of the time.
An important post-impressionist artist, he also contributed illustrations for the magazine Le Rire. On the other hand, he did not shun unorthodox commissions - his graphic art could be seen advertising books, bicycle chains, confetti, biscuits, exhibitions, menu cards and theatre programmes.
The only child and heir of an ancient royal family, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864 in Albi, France. His father, the aristocratic Comte Alphonse-Charles de Toulouse, was handsome and eccentric. He would wash his socks in the river, go hunting in outlandish costumes or just disappear for long stretches of time.
Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were first cousins. The inter-marrying to keep the property within the family had resulted in genetic diseases. Toulouse-Lautrec had a condition where his bones did not heal properly. He broke his left thighbone when he was 12 and his right thighbone when he was 14. The bones did not heal as a result of which his legs never grew properly. He had the torso of a fully-grown man while his legs were that of a child. He was only four and a half feet tall.
His deformities did not rob him of a zest for life. Every night he would be at the nightclub laughing and drinking with friends and sketching all the time. He would return home to expand the sketches into brightly coloured paintings.
Toulouse-Lautrec was an alcoholic most of his adult life. He was admitted to a sanatorium but he died on September 9, 1901. He was 36. His father appeared at his deathbed and though the others were surprised at the Comte's appearance, Toulouse-Lautrec said: "Good Papa. I knew you wouldn't miss the kill." His last words, "Old fool," were addressed to his father.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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