National Gallery of Australia presents Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris & the Moulin Rouge, an exhibition on view through 2 April 2013.
There is not one comprehensive collection of works by the late nineteenth century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the National Gallery of Australia has secured loans from 30 international collections such as the Toulouse-Lautrec museum, Albi, the Musée d’Orsay, Paris the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York the Courtauld and the Tate, London and El Museo de art Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid. Works will also be drawn from the National Gallery of Australia’s own collection of Toulouse-Lautrec prints and posters; the most extensive in Australia, most of which have been acquired recently to be shown for the first time.
Toulouse-Lautrec’s iconic works are extremely rare, given that he died just prior turning 37 and as such are greatly treasured. Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge provides an extraordinary opportunity for Australians to view more than 100 works, many of which have never been exhibited publicly before. The large scale retrospective is an exceptional event in this country and due to the extremely fragile nature of many of the works it is unlikely such an exhibition will be seen here again for many years.
The three works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the hugely successful Masterpieces from Paris exhibition were some of the most popular, and the artist is widely appreciated by Australians who are familiar with his images of café society, the high and low life of Bohemian Paris and famous dance halls such as the Moulin-Rouge. – www.nga.gov.au