Alternate Views

Monsieur Boileau at the Café

1893

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

(French, 1864-1901)

France, 19th century

Gouache

Sheet: 80 x 65 cm (31 1/2 x 25 9/16 in.); Framed: 105.4 x 89.5 x 8.3 cm (41 1/2 x 35 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 394.1925

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The green drink on the table is probably absinthe, a popular drink with artists at the time that was thought to have hallucinogenic properties.

Description

The sitter, perhaps a certain Mr. Bolleau, must have been a friend of Lautrec, who dedicated this work to him at the upper left. He may have been the iron merchant-heavy set and wearing a bowler hat-who also appears in a line drawing by the artist. This drawing, the first by the artist to enter an American museum collection, is a prime example of Lautrec's ability to capture the atmosphere of Paris café life.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed upper left: à mon ami Boileau/HTLautrec [HTL in monogram]

Provenance

Wildenstein & Co., NY

Paul Rosenberg, Paris

Baron Lafaurie, Paris

Citations

Lowry, Bates. The Visual Experience: An Introduction to Art. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1961. Mentioned: p. 72-73; Reproduced: p. 72, 77.

Pelfrey, Robert H. Art and Mass Media. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1996. Mentioned: p. 74-75; Reproduced: p. 74.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 40 archive.org

Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters, Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Musée D'Albi, France. Exh. Cat. New York: M. Knoedler and Company, 1937. Mentioned: p. 24, no. 14; Reproduced: pl. 14

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 37 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 510 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 179 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 179 archive.org

Dortu, M. G. Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre. 1971. Mentioned: pp. 282-83; Reproduced: p. 283.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 222 archive.org

Toulouse-Lautrec. Exh. Cat. London: South Bank Centre, 1991. Mentioned: pp. 18, 23, 133, 160; Reproduced: p 161.

Robinson, Fred Miller. The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Mentioned: pp. 72-74; Reproduced: p. 73.

Shimohama, Akiko and Chūji Ikegami. Rōtorekku. Tōkyō: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 1993. Mentioned: pp. 22-23; Reproduced: p. 23.

Bos, Eric. Absinthe, het grote kwaad: de groene fee als inspiratiebron van de kunsten. Groningen : Boekwerk & partners, 2016. Reproduced: p. 9

Néret, Gilles, Ingo F. Walther. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901. Koln: Benedikt Taschen, 1993. p. 86

Exhibition history

Exposition des Indépendants, Paris(1893), no. 1246.

Exposition Toulouse Lautrec. Wildenstein & Co., New York (1914), no. 33.
Exposition rétrospective de l'oeuvre de Toulouse-Lautrec. Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris (1914), no. 33.

Mutilés de la guerre. Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris (1917), no. 94.

Les Oeuvres des grands maîtres du XIX siècle. Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris (1922), no. 94.

Toulouse-Lautrec exposition en l'honneur du cinquantième anniversaire de sa mort. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (organizer).

Exhibition of French Impressionists from Manet to Cézanne. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer).

Exhibition of XIX and XX Century Painting. Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT (organizer).

Centenaire de Toulouse-Lautrec. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris (organizer).

French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).

Exposition H. de Toulouse-Lautrec, au profit de la Société des Amis du Musée d'Albi. Musée des arts Décoratifs, Paris, France (organizer) (April 9-March 17, 1931).

Independent Painters of Nineteenth-Century Paris. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (organizer) (March 15-April 28, 1935).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters. M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, NY (organizer) (November 15-December 11, 1937).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).

19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).

A Loan Exhibition of Toulouse-Lautrec. Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY (organizer) (October 23-November 23, 1946).

Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (organizer) (March 6-April 20, 1947).

Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters and Lithographs. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 20-May 6, 1956).

Masterpieces Recalled: Benefit for League for Emotionally Disturbed Children. Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, NY (February 6-March 2, 1957).

Toulouse-Lautrec. Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY (February 7-March 14, 1964).

Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (August 4-September 1, 1975).

Toulouse-Lautrec. Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (October 10-January 19, 1991); Musée du Petit Palais, Paris (February 21-June 1, 1992).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).

Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. The Art Institute of Chicago (July 16-October 10, 2005).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Monsieur Boileau at the Café|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/394.1925|author=Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec|year=1893|access-date=22 September 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Monsieur Boileau at the Café

Monsieur Boileau at the Café

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

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