Frontispiece for "Elles"
Frontispiece for "Elles"
Artist
Creation date
1896
Materials
color lithograph
Dimensions
20 5/8 x 16 in. (image and sheet)
Credit line
Gift of Phillipa Hughes
Accession number
2004.162
Collection
Not Currently On View
This poster advertised the exhibition and sale of a suite of eleven lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec. The same image served as the frontispiece to the suite and as its cover.
The title "Elles" is the French feminine form of "they" and described the contents of the suite, which dealt sympathetically and matter-of-factly with the daily life of Parisian prostitutes with whom Toulouse-Lautrec had shared lodgings. The understated treatment may have disappointed the publisher, Gustave Pellet, who specialized in erotica.
Marie Harriman Gallery, N.Y.; Margaret Camp, N.Y. (acquired about 1938); Phillipa Hughes, Indianapolis (niece, by descent)
