Fashionable People at Les Ambassadeurs (Aux Ambassadeurs: Gens Chic)

1893

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Artist, French, 1864 - 1901

A man and woman sit across from each other at a small, narrow café table under a porch-like roof in this vertical drawing on tan paper. The people’s skin is the color of the paper, and their clothing and hints of the surrounding are painted with streaks and thin washes of vivid color. Closer to us and to the left, the woman sits in a chair with an arched back. Her face is mostly angled away from us, but she has a delicate nose, and her lips appear to be closed. Her pale turquoise-blue dress has a high neck, a tight bodice, a long skirt, and long sleeves puffed along the upper arm. A black hat with short sprays like a spurting fountain is tucked into her yellow updo. Across from her, the man also has yellow hair. His eyes are almost slits under thin brows, and his small lips are closed and possibly pursed under a thin mustache. He has a square chin and prominent jawline. He wears a black tie and dinner jacket with a white flower tucked into the buttonhole. His shirt and the tablecloth are the tan of the paper. A decanter of a yellow liquid, presumably wine, sits on the table. A gray fenced at elbow height for the seated couple runs across the back of the space. The view under the overhanging roof is cobalt blue with tree canopies shaded turquoise green. A store window across a black street shows a mannequin wearing a pink dress. The scene is loosely sketched and details fade beyond the main couple. The artist signed the lower left corner with his initials, HTL, conjoined in a circle.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil à l'essence over black chalk on wove paper, mounted on cardboard

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 84.3 x 65.5 cm (33 3/16 x 25 13/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1995.47.67

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Dortu 1971, no. 477

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Depeaux, Rouen, by 1901; (his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot 25 April 1901, no. 63); (Galerie Georges Bernheim, Paris); George Lurcy; (his sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 7 November 1957, no. 46); Keller; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift to NGA, 1995.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1914

  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Galerie Rosenberg, Paris, 1914, no. 63.

1946

  • Toulouse-Lautrec. Wildenstein, New York, 1946, no. 20.

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999-2000.

2000

  • Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000-2001, 222.

2005

  • Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and The Art Institute of Chicago, 2005, no. 162, repro.

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, 2011, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

1893

  • Geoffroy, Gustave. "Les Restaurants et les cafés-concerts des Champs-Elysées." Le Figaro Illustré 40 (1893): repr.

1926

  • Joyant, Maurice. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901. Paris, 1926: 144, 174 (note 2), 278.

1927

  • Lapparent, Paul de. Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1927: 54.

1934

  • MacOrlan, Pierre. Lautrec le Peintre. Paris, 1934: 142.

1935

  • Schaub-Koch, Émile. Psychanalyse d'un peintre moderne Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1935: 202.

1938

  • Mack, Gerstle. Toulouse-Lautrec. New York, 1938: 192, 357..

1952

  • Jourdain, Francis. T-Lautrec: Essai sur Toulouse-Lautrec, peintre-graveur, par Jean Adhémar... Paris, 1952: 68, 73 (repr), 111, 123.

1958

  • Perruchot, Henri. La Vie de Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1958: 333, note 2.

1962

  • Toulouse-Lautrec. Paris, 1962: 219.

1971

  • Dortu, M.G. Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre. 6 vols. New York: Collectors Editions, 1971

1979

  • Stuckey, Charles F. Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago, 1979: 197, fig. 1.

1992

  • Toulouse-Lautrec. Exh. cat. Haywayd Gallery, London and Grand Palais, Paris, 1992:fig. 255, under no. 52.

2000

  • A Scottish Collection--Treasures from Aberdeen Art Gallery. Exh. cat. Nagasaki Prefectural Museum and Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, 2000: fig. 17, under no. 55.

2010

  • Jones, Kimberly A. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2010.

Inscriptions

lower left in black chalk: TL (in ligature)

Wikidata ID

Q64573656

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