In the manner of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
At the Club, Ring Light, 2026
Colour lithograph
120 × 80 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.14.1
She leans towards a phone on a little tripod, her face flattened white by a ring light, lips pushed into a pout that is entirely for the lens. Behind her the dancers are red and black blurs, and the barman rests his chin on his hand, bored beyond boredom. Lautrec loved the performers and never pretended it was not work. Neither does the barman. He sees this show every night.
The brief
A young woman in a black dress leaning toward a phone on a small tripod with a ring light, her face lit flat white, dancers as a dark blur behind her, a bored barman. Belle Époque colour lithograph poster, flat bold areas of red, black, mustard and cream, sinuous confident contour lines drawn in crayon, figures cropped sharply at the edges and seen from low tables, spattered tone, faces caricatured with tenderness and fatigue, large empty areas left as paper, gritty printed texture. Flat frontal reproduction of the poster on paper, the sheet fills the frame edge to edge, even lighting, no frame, no wall, no lettering, no text.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
