Running until 27th January 2002, it pays homage to the great French painter who depicted the "Belle Epoque" and top exponents of the era providing a large fresco of those years and of the feminine figures that went through them.

Exhibited works are 112 between paintings and lithographs coming from private collections and foreign museums. The show is subdivided in specific chapters that also mark Toulouse Lautrec’s life and artistic development stages.

End 1800’s Paris is the setting, livened by dance halls, cabarets, night venues but also cultural circles and anìvant-garde art groups, a city swept over by innovative fervour that also gives into “easy” pleasures.

Among works to admire there are those dedicated to “closed houses” such as the lithograph "Elles" and the paintings "Maison di rue des Moulins".

Few artists were able to capture the feminine world and depict it like Toulouse Lautrec. He loved to portray mundane life and social reality of his time through the “woman” universe.

Born in Albi in 1864, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec moved to Paris in 1882 to attend painting courses by Leon Bonnat and Fernand Cormon. He lives the picturesque and stimulating Montmartre environment whence he gathers inspiration for his work.

Around 1886 his paintings are shown in important shows and the press also notices him, final recognition comes in 1890 and his fame becomes solid.

Unfortunately he becomes victim of depression and in 1899 he is taken into hospital for alcoholism. He dies in Bordeaux in the castle of Malromé the 9th September 1901.

October.2001

Mazzotta Foundation