At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance

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At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French - At the Moulin Rouge- The Dance - Google Art Project.jpg
Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Year1890
MediumOil on canvas
Movement Post Impressionism
Dimensions115.6 cm× 149.9 cm(45.51 in× 59.02 in)
Location Philadelphia Museum of Art

At the Moulin Rouge, the Dance is an oil-on-canvas painted by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was painted in 1890, and is the second of a number of graphic paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret built in Paris in 1889. It portrays two dancers dancing the can-can in the middle of the crowded dance hall. A recently discovered inscription by Toulouse-Lautrec on the back of the painting reads: "The instruction of the new ones by Valentine the Boneless." [1] This means that the man to the left of the woman dancing is Valentin le désossé, a well-known dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and he is teaching the newest addition to the cabaret. To the right is a mysterious aristocratic woman in pink. The background also features many aristocratic people such as poet Edward Yeats, the club owner and even Toulouse-Lautrec's father. The work is currently displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

References

  1. Rishel, Joseph (1995). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections. p. 206.