Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre brings the sights, sounds and delights of Lautrec’s bohemian Paris to modern-day Bath. It revisits the street art of the period, with more than 80 iconic colour posters on display by artists including Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, Pierre Bonnard and many others.

For the first 16 images you can listen to the audio clips or read the accompanying text to discover how visual art, music and dance were intertwined in this thrilling era.

Lautrec was a local resident and friend of many of the performers, making him ideally placed to build on these connections through his art. He harnessed the recently invented process of colour lithography to his telling eye for detail, and created dozens of bold posters that went up all over Paris. This exposure brought instant celebrity to Lautrec - and it made stars of the entertainers whose shows he was promoting. 

Other artists, such as Mucha, Bonnard and Théophile Steinlen, were quick to put their design skills at the service of commercial clients, ensuring this became a golden age for the art of the poster! This exhibition was on display at Victoria Art Gallery between February-March 2020.

Images 2-15 and 17-49: © Musée d'Ixelles-Bruxelles / Courtesy of Institut für Kulturaustausch, Tübingen

Image 16: Courtesy of Fashion Museum Bath