1899, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Le Tandem -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label:
The circus grew in popularity at the end of the 19th century, alongside other forms of spectacular entertainment like the cabaret. Toulouse-Lautrec frequented these venues, where he felt a sense of camaraderie with the performers. This drawing is one from a series he made while a patient at a sanatorium outside Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec hoped that the drawings would convince his doctors that he was well enough for release.
During the Renaissance, drawing had been conceived of as an intellectual pursuit--a way of both creatively and scientifically approaching a subject. Toulouse-Lautrec builds on this tradition, using drawing as a means of demonstrating his own mental fitness, while simultaneously depicting a thoroughly modern subject.
1899, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Le Tandem -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label:
The circus grew in popularity at the end of the 19th century, alongside other forms of spectacular entertainment like the cabaret. Toulouse-Lautrec frequented these venues, where he felt a sense of camaraderie with the performers. This drawing is one from a series he made while a patient at a sanatorium outside Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec hoped that the drawings would convince his doctors that he was well enough for release.
During the Renaissance, drawing had been conceived of as an intellectual pursuit--a way of both creatively and scientifically approaching a subject. Toulouse-Lautrec builds on this tradition, using drawing as a means of demonstrating his own mental fitness, while simultaneously depicting a thoroughly modern subject.