Alone

In four colors (black, blue, orange and white), Toulouse-Lautrec has quickly and spontaneously painted a prostitute lying collapsed on the bed. Her client has just left the room. Stretched out on her back she is completely fatigued. Her black stockings are pulled up over her thin legs, which hang down as two limp forms from the bed to the floor. This lifeless position conveys utter exhaustion.

In an attempt to suggest the frenzy of the preceding liaison, the bed sheets are depicted as a mix of roughly painted blue strokes and patches of white. The sheets are crumpled left to right, up and down, and diagonally. We are witness to the motionless aftermath of turbulent sexual activity that contrasts sharply with the prostrated figure. The scene is one of enigmatic absence. We are left wondering about the sordid transaction that has preceded this moment and feel sympathy for the woman whose trade has left her in such a shattered state.

Toulouse-Lautrec is well known for his paintings of prostitutes and courtesans. Sometimes he would pack up and move into a brothel for days or months on end. He even enjoyed shocking new acquaintances by giving the notorious address of a brothel as his place of residence. Prostitutes and madams accepted Lautrec as a fellow outcast, and permitted him to wander about, sketching and painting freely on his own initiative or on commission to the brothels.

P.S. Visit a cabaret with Toulouse-Lautrec! Enter here!