Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa Driving his Mail-Coach in Nice

Painted in 1880 and now at the Petit Palais in Paris, this early work showing Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec — the artist's father — driving a horse-drawn mail-coach at Nice exemplifies the aristocratic sporting world of his family background. The comte was a passionate eccentric with numerous obsessions including falconry, armour, and horse sports; he cut a theatrical figure in Nice's winter social season. Henri painted his father's sporting pursuits repeatedly in his early career, the equestrian subjects connecting to both his traditional academic training and his intimate knowledge of the family's world. The Petit Palais context places it among the civic collections of the French capital.

The mail-coach subject allows Lautrec to demonstrate his precocious command of horse anatomy and motion at fifteen or sixteen — the team of horses in harness, the elegant coach, and the comte's theatrical driving posture all observed with the familiarity of someone who had grown up around horses. The early handling shows confident observation if not yet full technical mastery.