Profile of Toulouse-Lautrec

Profile of Toulouse-Lautrec at the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi depicts Vuillard's friend and colleague — the two were close in the 1890s through their shared connection to the Revue Blanche circle and the Nabi group. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, seen here in profile, was by 1898 already ill with the alcoholism and syphilis that would kill him three years later. Vuillard's portrait of his friend — painted in a style very different from Lautrec's own bold lithographic work — is a personal document as much as a formal exercise, and its presence in the Albi museum dedicated to Lautrec gives it particular biographical resonance.

The profile view creates a simplified silhouette of Lautrec's distinctive features — his short stature and large head immediately recognizable even in summary. Vuillard treats the portrait with his characteristic pattern-integration technique, the face and figure not entirely separated from the surrounding environment.