At the Moulin Rouge

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s At the Moulin Rouge evokes the smoky, gaslit world of the most famous cabaret in Paris. Painted between 1892 and 1895, the picture sets the dancer La Goulue and her companions at a table in the foreground while the crowd behind dissolves in the glare of the lights; the artist appears at the right, beside the towering figure of the entertainer La Macarona. The bold diagonals, acid colour, and unsparing eye of the work made it the defining image of Montmartre’s nightlife. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.