Jane Avril

Painted in 1891 and now at the Clark Art Institute, this early portrait of Jane Avril predates the celebrated poster imagery that would make her image iconic. Jane Avril — whose real name was Jeanne Beaudon — had arrived at the Moulin Rouge after recovering from the illness and instability of her difficult childhood, and her extraordinarily individual dance style, which she performed with an inward, almost melancholy quality, made her stand out from the more extrovert performers around her. Lautrec was drawn to her complexity and their friendship lasted throughout his life. This early painted portrait precedes the major poster commissions she gave him from 1893.

The early painted Jane Avril shows Lautrec developing his characteristic approach to her image — the slightly inward gaze, the quality of someone partly elsewhere, that distinguished her from the more aggressively theatrical performers at the Moulin Rouge. The handling shows developing economy without yet the full graphic authority of his mature work.