Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond The Moulin Rouge
16 June – 18 September 2011
” … this is one of the best small exhibitions of the year…”
The Independent
“… a cracker of a show.”
Time Out
Jane Avril, the dancer, was one of the stars of the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s. Known for her alluring style and exotic persona, her fame was assured by a series of dazzlingly inventive posters designed by the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Jane Avril became an emblematic figure in Lautrec’s world of dancers, cabaret singers, musicians and prostitutes. She was also a close friend of the artist and he painted a series of striking portraits of her. These go beyond Toulouse-Lautrec’s exuberant poster images of the start performer and give a more private account of Avril captured off-stage.
This landmark exhibition is the first to celebrate this remarkable creative partnership which has to come to define the world of the Moulin Rouge. Bringing together Toulouse-Lautrec’s most famous paintings, posters and prints from international collections, it captures the excitement and spectacle of bohemian Paris in the 1890s.
Exhibition Supporters
- An anonymous donor
- The Friends of The Courtauld