The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon)

Painted in 1889 and now at the Fogg Museum at Harvard, this work showing a woman slumped at a café table — the 'hangover' of the title — uses Suzanne Valadon as his model. Valadon, who at this date was romantically involved with Lautrec, posed for this deliberately unglamorous subject. The hangover was a social reality of the bohemian world both inhabited, and Lautrec's treatment strips it of any romantic or cautionary narrative dimension, presenting instead a purely observed physical state. The Fogg acquisition places this searingly honest subject in the company of Ingres, Degas, and other European masters.

The figure's posture — slumped, head lowered, arms resting on the table — is observed with clinical precision. The café table and glass provide compositional anchors, with the oil technique maintaining its characteristic flatness across both the figure and the surrounding space. Valadon's specific physical features are captured without idealisation.