NOTE: CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE THE FULL VIEW. I'm having some formatting issues. So, to see the whole painting, you have to click on it I think.
I have to start with this painting just because it's one I'm partial to. I like Toulouse-Lautrec in general, but especially this painting. He painted it a few years after the Moulin Rouge opened in Paris. (Painted between 1892-1895, and Moulin opened in 1889).
Just some interesting facts:
-The Moulin Rouge was called that because of the red windmill on its rooftop.
-Toulouse was crippled. He portrayed himself in this painting. If you start with the blue-faced woman and count to the third man behind her in that sort of diagonal line (a technique often used to create a feeling of chaos) that is him. He was probably not sitting down. That's how short he was. He spent a lot of time in brothels with prostitutes because he didn't have much luck with the ladies. His paintings of these brothels are some of very favorites. It's so cool to see portrayals of prostitutes that were done with a loving hand by a person who saw himself as being on their same level, for once.
-The artistic style of this painting is Post-Impressionist and Expressionist.
-The redhead fixing her hair in the background is La Goulue (the glutton), the star of the Moulin Rouge. She is such an interesting person to me because she was this incredibly talented, enigmatic dancer in her prime who ended up becoming an alcoholic selling cigarettes outside the Moulin Rouge until her death--unrecognizable by the general public.
That's all I'll say about this, being that I don't want these little summaries to go too long. I hope anyone who reads this finds it interesting and is hopefully inspired in some way. That is the whole point. :)
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