Aristide Bruant - Le Café Concert

Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
Aristide Bruant – Original print from
Le Café-Concert
L'Estampe originale | Paris 1893 | 31.5 x 43 cm | one leaf
Original print by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec from the Le Café-Concert series, published by Publications de l'Estampe Originale. Very rare and beautiful lithograph forming part of 500 original proofs printed on vellum by Edouard Ancourt's printing house.
A few angular lacks.
Portrait by Toulouse-Lautrec of Aristide Bruant, a huge figure in the Belle Epoque music-hall and close friend of the artist, to whom he ordered cabaret posters that remain well-known. Singer, actor, and performer, he acquired his fame at the Chat Noir before setting up his own cabaret, the Mirliton. In his preface to this current series of lithographs, Montorgueil is full of praise for the undisputed master of realistic song: “Mr Bruant, endowed with an unusual forceful expression, and an obvious originality, could condense a complex and shady wild cat soul into popular, beautifully styled songs.” Here, Lautrec depicts Bruant with his typical get-up and expression: "Velvet jacket; Breton waistcoat, crimson felt scarf with giant edges, with parted flat hair. [...] Hands in pockets and a strongly disdainful expression.”
A rare print, a reminder of the splendors of the “Fin de siècle Paris by night”.