TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Henri de
(b. 1864, Albi, d. 1901, Château Malromé, Langon)

In the Salon of the Rue des Moulins

c. 1894
Oil on canvas, 112 x 133 cm
Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi

Mireille was one of the girls in the brothel in the Rue d'Amboise. Lautrec was particularly fond of her. She can be seen in the large painting In the Salon of the Rue des Moulins, sitting in half-profile in the foreground, with her right hand round her drawn-up leg. The girls in the salon await their customers under the strict gaze of Madame.

The title of the picture is not correct as the brothel shown here is not the one in the Rue des Moulins but the one in the Rue d'Amboise, in which Mireille worked for a time. The artist only frequented the Rue des Moulins after Mireille left for Argentine.

Between 1892 and 1895, Lautrec produced innumerable studies, about fifty paintings and over one hundred drawings from the brothels. The greatest achievement of these works was the present famous painting. It is one of the few compositions for which he relied on his memory and imagination, supported by jottings and sketches. He worked on it for months in his studio.




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