Nightlife of Paris: The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec - Hardcover

The large number of biographies, catalogs, and monographs on Toulouse-Lautrec can make selection for libraries somewhat confusing. These two volumes have much in their favor, especially their relatively modest prices and their sophisticated approach. Ash has produced the most comprehensive book yet devoted to Lautrec's color lithograph posters. The artist is the acknowledged master of the form, and the more than 30 images reproduced here have influenced generations of graphic artists. Many of the large-format illustrations are accompanied by related studies, paintings, and contemporary photographs, and Ash covers the creation and critical response to each poster. Even libraries that have Gotz Adriani's masterful Lautrec: The Complete Graphic Works, A Catalogue Raisonne ( LJ 3/1/88) may want to acquire Ash's volume as well. O'Connor's addition to the field emphasizes the decadence rather than the glamour of fin-de-siecle Paris. He describes the clowns, dancers, prostitutes, singers, lesbians, and club impresarios who populated the smoky, besotted nightlife of Lautrec's Paris. With brief, spicy text and 32 reproductions of paintings, drawings, and lithographs, O'Connor will appeal to those who might not pick up a weightier, more traditional study of the artist. Libraries with the means to acquire a more comprehensive study might prefer Richard Thomson et al. Toulouse-Lautrec (Yale Univ. Pr., 1992).
- Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lively anecdotes about the hedonistic luminaries of fin-de-siecle Paris enhance this beguiling 80-page book. Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings, sketches and lithographs are juxtaposed with photographs of his subjects, among them dancer Jane Avril and chanteuse Yvette Guilbert in her signature elbow-length black gloves. Captions describe the diminutive artist's acquaintance with Aristide Bruant, a singer of drinking songs who became "the Bob Dylan of his time"; Louise Weber, aka "La Goulue," who, as she danced, often kicked the hat from the head of her partner; and uninhibited Polaire, a friend of Colette, whose high jinks included dancing the quadrille at the windmill-shaped night spot called the Moulin Rouge. These habitues of Montmartre's cafes, cabarets and brothels, familiar to us from Toulouse-Lautrec's posters and museum pieces, come alive anew; O'Connor ( Josephine Baker ) vibrantly recaptures the boisterous, bittersweet Parisian evenings.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.