Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901), Portrait of Marcelle Lender

color lithograph, paper; 47 x 29 cm (print), 50 x 40 cm (sheet dimensions); inscribed on panel l. g.: Marcelle; signed on panel p. d.: T-Lautrec; yellowed paper, small paper tears at edges

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec (born November 24, 1864 in Albi, died September 9, 1901 in Saint-André-du-Bois) - French painter and printmaker. A representative of Post-Impressionism, he had a great influence on the development of the modern poster with his lithographs.Toulouse Lautrec had a reputation as the soul of Montmartre - the Parisian district where he lived. His paintings depict the life of the famous Moulin Rouge and other Parisian cabarets and theaters, as well as brothels (where he probably contracted syphilis). He often included in his works two of his friends - singer Yvette Guilbert and Louise Weber, a dancer and creator of the French cancan. Toulouse taught painting and praised the artistic advances of his model (and probably lover) Suzanne Valadon. He was an alcoholic for most of his life.
Marcelle Lender (1862 - 1926) was a French singer, dancer and artist, made famous by the paintings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.Born Anne-Marie Marcelle Bastien, she began dancing at the age of sixteen and within a few years made a name for herself performing at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris. Her distinctive feature was her lush red hair - as seen in colorful works by Tolouse Lautrec.
Lender appears in several of Lautrec's works, the most famous painting featuring Marcelle Lender is the Bolero during her performance in February 1895 at the operetta Hervé Chilpéric .
Lautrec's portrait of her in full costume, with her fiery red hair highlighted by two red poppies worn like plumes, greatly increased Lender's popularity after it appeared in a Parisian magazine. The painting was eventually sold to a collector from the United States, and after her death in 1998, the painting's then-owner, American Betsey Cushing Whitney, donated it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.