Focusing on the decade from 1891 to 1900 when Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) and Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) were both active in Paris, the city of art, this exhibition is anchored by the lithograph posters that were an important part of each artist’s repertoire. Toulouse-Lautrec produced his first poster, Moulin Rouge―La Goulue, in 1891, and, three years later, Mucha debuted his first poster, Gismonda. Both were big hits, making Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha celebrated artists of their time.
While both artists found themselves thrust into the limelight thanks to their first posters, they worked in different parts of central Paris on opposite sides of the River Seine, with Toulouse-Lautrec in Montmartre, and Mucha in Montparnasse. This show focuses on the two artists—poster artists who were two leading artists of La Belle Époque—taking note of aspects involved in their creative output, such as their studios, printers, and clients.
The show provides a very rare opportunity to view a wide variety of works, presenting all thirty-one priceless posters that Toulouse-Lautrec put out in a mere decade, as well as different states* and test prints, something made possible thanks to the Suntory Poster Collection deposited with the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka.
“States” refers to different forms of a print in which the same work is produced differently, for example, with different colors of ink or before the addition of text, all of which are completed works constituting various variations, differentiated by being referred to as “first state” and “second state,” etc.
Information about the Exhibition
〈Dates〉
October 15, 2022 – January 9, 2023
Closed on Mondays (except January 2, January 9). Closed on December 31, January 1
〈Opening hours〉
10:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30)
〈Venue〉
Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka 4F Galleries
〈Organizer〉
Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, The Asahi Shimbun
