As a child, Henri suffered from frequent pains in his legs, and in his adolescence, he broke both of his thighbones in two accidents. These triggered the early onset of pyknodysostosis, a hereditary form of latent dwarfism which normally does not manifest itself until adulthood, but, in Lautrec’s case, it stunted the growth of his legs and curtailed his physical ability at an early age.
As of 1882, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, very protected by his mother, Countess Adèle, completes his classical studies in Paris at the lycée Condorcet then in Montmartre in the studios of the academic painters Léon Bonnat and Fernand Cormon.He also meets with Louis Anquetin, Vincent van Gogh and Emile Bernard but also withMaurice Joyant andMichel Manziwho will always defend his work.
With his genius for portraits, he immortalized the stars, from Aristide Bruant to Jane Avril, from Yvette Guilbert to Loïe Füller. A regular visitor to brothels, he studied the simple day-to-day reality of the prostitutes.
He died at his mother's Malrome estate in Gironde, on September 9th 1901. In his brief lifetime he created some 737 canvases, 275watercolors, 368 prints and posters, and 5,084 drawings, not including lost works, an occasional sculpture, ceramic, or stained-glass window. He was one of the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period.
Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa
