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Arts & Life
The Clarion \ May 6, 2020
An artist's last words
Kristen Martinets presents her senior thesis on Henri de Toulouse-Lautree
By Mickayla Smith
staff Writer
On April 28, Kristen Martinets presented her senior thesis in Anne
Chapin’s Art History class. About 30 people showed up to hear what
Kristen had to say about an artist that has been pushed under the radar.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a post-impressionistic French artist,
bom in 1864. He was an essential figure in the theatrical life of Paris
through the remaining 19th century. His collection of work encompassed
the beauty, elegance and promiscuous activities of the self-indulgent
culture of his time.
Toulouse-Lautrec was bom to Alphonse Charles Comte de Toulouse-
Lautrec-Monfa and Adele Zoe Tapie de Celeyran. His parents were
first cousins and as a result of his inbreeding, he faced a lot of health
issues. First, he did not exceed past five feet tall because he broke both
his legs when he was a teenager. The breaks did not heal properly and
the result was growing an adult-sized torso while he remained with his
child-sized legs.
Later into his adulthood, his mental health started to decline and he
resorted to substances to cope. His drinking started to get out of hand and
by 1898, he was a full-blown alcoholic. His drink of choice was absinthe
and he used this drink for inspiration in his paintings. Toulouse-Lautrec
was also dealing with complications from syphilis. It’s estimated that
he contracted the STl around the year 1890. When syphilis started to
take effect on him, he began to use mercury for treatment. In 1898, he
suffered a stroke due to all the toxins in his body, and as a result, his
mother admitted him to an asylum.
In the asylum, Lautrec produced beautiful works of art. Most of the 50
plus paintings he made were themed around a circus. These paintings, in
the end, were used as his ticket out of the asylum. In 1900, he had a brief
period of sobriety, but that all changed in 1901. He suffered a second stroke
and died at the age of 37.
His mental and physical health impacted the change in his art style.
Through the years, one can see proof of how he executes his work.
His work throughout the years became brighter and heavily outlined so
Lautrec could see what he was painting. His mark-making became shaky
because he was in constant pain due to his partial paralysis later in life.
But his inabilities and addiction didn’t necessarily make his work “bad,”
Martinets said,
“He created some works to purposefully be more controlled and beautiful
than his mental state,” Martinets said. “1 wouldn’t necessarily say that a
bright color palette is a bad thing—they are just his adaptations to make
his work look good and clear to the viewer. Rather than sticking with a
particular style and not adapting at all which, in turn, shows his decline a
lot more and would have begun to look like a blob and an erratic mess.”
It’s important to remember Toulouse-Lautrec because he was an influential
artist who may have inspired artists like Picasso and Warhol. He also
persevered through his ailments and made history with art.
Martinets leaves us with this final statement: “A changed mental state from
drugs or disease changes art, and even if you’re not subjected to those things
yourself, at least one of the artists who influences you would have most
likely been subjected to a visually altering substance addiction or disease.”
Even beauty can come out of the darkness.
This photomontage by Toulouse-Lautrec’s close friend Maurice Guibert Is sometimes titled “Mr. Toulouse paints Mr. Lautrec” (ca. 1891). Guibert took a
number of photographs of Toulouse-Lautrec in his studio.