Lautrec as Pierrot

I am fascinated by photography, but in particular anything very old that depicts life as it once was and captures those fleeting moments of expression in the faces and poses of people that went before us. There is something so melancholic about it—as though a photograph is as close to brushing up against a ghost as we will ever get. I also get a great sense of connection to photographs—and therefore to the past and the people that walked there—that other mediums don’t provide in such a personal way. This is only my own view of course, and I don’t expect you to necessarily share it!

This feeling was at its most acute while standing in the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi, France, last summer. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was also fascinated by photography because it reliably represented the factual world rather than an impression of it. Although an artist, he was not drawn to the romantic side of art, and even said, “I don’t want to make things beautiful, I want to make them real.” His interpretation of life was as real as the suffering he endured due to various disabling health issues, and in his art—whether paintings and lithographs or illustrations and photographs—there seems always to be an attempt to show the truths about life.

The photograph above is a self-portrait of the artist dressed up as Pierrot the Clown. What does it say to us about him? The medium of the photograph lays bare the man himself, but then he creates an internal barrier by adding the false persona. There is a deliberate lie here that makes us question what is real and what is not: I might even speculate that he is saying, ‘I am not a clown, yet this is how I have to live my life.’ The trick creates an overwhelming sense that we are being led to the truth of the artist, or to what is ‘real’, but without committing to the idea completely. Here the artist definitely has the last laugh.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec died of syphilis and alcoholism aged only thirty-six.

The text was written by our new contributor, Sarah, I hope you liked it!

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