Moulin de la Galette

1889

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864-1901

With this painting of the dance hall known as the Moulin de la Galette, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec established his reputation as the chronicler of the Montmartre district’s famed nightlife. A wooden barrier bisects the composition, dividing the frenzied action of the dance floor in the background from the stillness of the women waiting in the foreground. Toulouse-Lautrec used turpentine to thin his paint and applied it in loose washes, a technique known as peinture à l’essence. The result is a sketchy style that conveys both the immediacy of the artist’s observations and the tawdry atmosphere of his subject.

Status: On View, Gallery 242
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Title: Moulin de la Galette
Place: France (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1889
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: HT Lautrec
Dimensions: 88.5 × 101.3 cm (35 7/8 × 39 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1933.458
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M. G. Dortu, “Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre.” (New York, 1971, no. 335).
Dominique Jarrassé, “Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa: Entre le mythe et la modernité.” Paris, Philippe Sers, 1991, plate 18 (color).
Gale B. Murray, “Toulouse-Lautrec: The Formative Years, 1878-92.” Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, fig. 109 (color).
Gale B. Murray, “Toulouse-Lautrec: A Retrospective.” (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 1992), illustrated in color p. 95.
The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London, 2008), cat. 61, pp. 130-31 (ill.).
Musée d’Orsay, Splendeurs & misères, Images de la prostitution, 1850-1910, publisher Flammarion, Paris (Septembre 2015). Cette exposition a étè organisée par le musée d’Orsay, Paris et le Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, front cover detail, [232] p.249: Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge (1928.610), [61] p.109:Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin de la Galette (1933.458), and [100] p. 138-139 Courbet, Mérè Grégoire (1930.78).
Van Gogh Museum in Collaboration with Musée d’Orsay, Easy Virtue. Prostitution in French Art, 1850-1910 (2016) p. 43 - Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin de la Galette (1933.458) [24] , p. 94 - Courbet, Mèré Grégoire (1930.78) [75].
Pedrosa, Adriano and Luciano Migliaccio. Toulouse-Lautrec em Vermelho [in Red], exh. cat. (Museu de Arte de São Paulo, 2017), p. 35, 43, 134, img. 66 [130], 136-137, 144-145.
Stéphane Guégan, Toulouse-Lautrec: Résolument modern, exh. cat. (Paris: Musée d’Orsay; RMN – Grand Palaise, 2019), 110-110 cat. 87, 330.

Paris, Exposition des Indépendants, 1889, cat. 257.
Brussels, Salon des XX, 1890.
Paris, Salon des Arts Libéraux, 1891.
Paris, Galerie Goupil, Exposition, 1893.
Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, H. de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1902, cat. 71, as Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette.
Paris, Musée des Arts Decoratifs,Peintures et Lithographies originales de H. de Toulouse Lautrec 1864-1901, January 24-February 20, cat. 2.
Paris, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Exposition Retrospective de l’oeuvre de H. de Toulouse-Lautrec, June 15-July 11, 1914, p. 15 cat. 76 as Au Moulin de la Galette.
Chicago, Art Institute, Arts Club, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, December 23, 1924-January 25, 1925, cat. 6 as Moulin de la Galette.
Chicago, Art Institute, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, December 23, 1930-January 18, 1931, pp. 16, 62 cat. 9 (ill.) as A Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Chicago, Art Institute, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings & Water Colors, April 6-October 9, 1932, pp. 6, 8, 24 cat. 37 as A Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Chicago, Art Institute, Catalogue of A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Lent from American Collections, June 1-November 1, 1933, p. 53 cat. 372 as A Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Chicago, Art Institute, Catalogue of A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-November 1, 1934, p. 50 cat. 327 as A Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
St. Louis, City Art Museum, Toulouse-Lautrec, December 1934.
Washington, D.C., Phillips Memorial Art Gallery, Toulouse-Lautrec, January-March 1939.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, March 6-April 20, 1947, p. 13 cat. 14 (ill.) as Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Kansas City, Nelson Gallery of Art, 20th Anniversary Exhibition, December 11-31, 1953), cat. 7.
Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Toulouse-Lautrec [exhibition organized in collaboration with the Albi Museum], October 29-December 11, 1955, cat. 15 (ill.) as At the Moulin de la Galette, 1889; traveled to Chicago, Art Institute, January 2-February 15, 1956.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters and Lithographs, March 20-May 6, 1956, pp. 4, 10, 45 cat. 12 (ill.) as At the Moulin de la Galette, 1888.
Paris, Palais du Louvre, Toulouse-Lautrec Exhibition, September 1964-January 1965, cat. 28.
Pittsburgh, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Celebration: Inaugural Exhibition of the Sarah Scaife Gallery of the Museum of Art, October 26, 1974-January 5, 1975, n.p. cat. 15 as Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Chicago, Art Institute, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings (October 4-December 2, 1979), pp. 142-146 cat. 38 (ill.) as Au bal du Moulin de la Galette/The dance hall at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Trésors Iimpressionistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27-August 31, 1980, pp. 21, 69 cat. 39 (ill.) as Le Moulin de la Galette, 1889.
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism, January 23-March 22, 1981, pp. 338, 339 cat. 121 (ill.) as The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889; traveled to Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, April 9-June 14, 1981.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], March 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 39; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988.
London, Hayward Gallery, Toulouse-Lautrec, October 10, 1991-January 19, 1992, cat. 64 as Bal du Moulin de la Galette/At the Moulin de la Galette dance-hall; Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, February 18-June 1, 1992.
Washington, D.C., The National Gallery, Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, March 20-June 12, 2005, pp. 110, 113, 118, 256 fig. 126 (ill.) as Moulin de la Galette, 1889; traveled to Chicago, Art Chicago, July 16-October 10, 2005.
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–November 2, 2008, cat. 61 (ill.).
Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Splendour and Misery, Images of prostitution in France, 1850-1910 < Splendeurs & misères, Images de la prostitution, 1850-1910> September 21, 2015-June 19, 2016; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, same exhibition but title ” Easy Virtue. Prostitution in French Art, 1850-1910, February 19, 2016-June 19, 2016.
São Paulo, Brazil, MASP, Toulouse-Lautrec em Vermelho [in Red], June 30-Oct. 1, 2017, cat. 130 (ill.).
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, October 9, 2019 – January 27, 2020, cat. 87.

Joseph Albert. Mme Montandon, Paris, by February 1890. Paul Gallimard, Paris. Paul Rosenberg by 1924 [see Chicago 1924/5]; Annie Swan Coburn (Mrs. Lewis L. Coburn), Chicago; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933

Dortu P. 335

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