Le crocodile, Menu
<p>In November 1896 Lautrec visited Château de Blois with friends, where they discussed Marie de Medici, the 17th-century French queen who was exiled to Blois by her son Louis XIII before later making a daring night escape. This tale inspired Lautrec’s menu, in which his friends masquerade as Marie and her rescuer. A puzzling crocodile and a bespectacled ghostly apparition also appear, only heightening the scene’s mystery. In a rare act of self-portraiture, Lautrec observes from below.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1896
- Dimensions
- Image: 32.3 × 22.3 cm (12 3/4 × 8 13/16 in.); Sheet: 56.1 × 38.2 cm (22 1/8 × 15 1/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
Artist
Painting
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa, known as Toulouse-Lautrec, was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator. His immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce popular works of art from decadent affairs.
Full artist profile →More
More by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Quatorze lithographies originales (Mélodies de Désiré Dihau)
1935 · Portfolio of fourteen lithographs, a duplicate transfer lithograph, and song
La Fille Élisa
1931 · Illustrated book with fifteen collotype reproductions, eleven with pochoir
Page, from Yvette Guilbert
1930 · Letterpress on cream laid paper, folded in book form
Title Page, from Yvette Guilbert
1930 · Letterpress in red and black on cream laid paper
Portfolio Cover, from Yvette Guilbert
1930 · Board mounted with printed paper and fabric, folded
Sept pointes seches
1911 · portfolio with seven drypoints
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Year
- 1896
- Dimensions
- Image: 32.3 × 22.3 cm (12 3/4 × 8 13/16 in.); Sheet: 56.1 × 38.2 cm (22 1/8 × 15 1/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1896-030405
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified