Au Bal des Etudiants 1875 - 1949

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made this lithograph, "Au Bal des Etudiants"–or "At the Students' Ball"—at some point in his short but full life. I imagine him in a frenzy of mark-making as he created the composition: hatching lines forming the bodies of party-goers, rendered in soft greys and yellows. I wonder if Toulouse-Lautrec ever felt like an outsider at these balls. The painting certainly gives us a glimpse into the world of Parisian nightlife at the end of the 19th century, but filtered through his own unique perspective. I get the sense he was both part of and apart from the crowd. Look at the way he's captured the woman in the foreground. The broad strokes of yellow almost flatten her into a shape. The way that she overlaps the other figures suggests the artist's interest in the spatial dynamics between foreground and background. Painters are always riffing off each other, looking back and sideways in art history, so when I look at this, I think, yeah, I've been there too!