Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) is One of the most exciting French artists of the end of the 19th century. He conveys with supreme mastery his pleasure in the glitter and glamour of the theatre, circus and cabarets of fin-de-siecle Paris, his fascination with the skilful and often frenzied movements of dancers and acrobats; and he lays bare with deep psychological insight and quite objective realism, the artificiality of the entertainment world of his time. Much has been written about Lautrec, but mostly these texts have dealt primarily with the artist's life. In this book, however, Professor Novotny is concerned with the essence of Lautrec's art : he analyses Lautrec's artistic range, his superb draughtsmanship, the acute characterisation of his portraits, his masterly handling of the simplified line and the effective use of large areas of flat colour, which make him unique in poster design. Professor Novotny describes with clarity the technique and structure of Lautrec's paintings, drawings, lithographs and posters, and persuades us by penetrating analysis that far from being a mere chronicler of late nineteenth-century Paris, Lautrec's art has in fact formed our own view of what the fin-de-siecle was really like.

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