Messalina by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Painted in 1901 and now at the Princeton University Art Museum, this canvas depicting Messalina belongs to the series Lautrec produced after attending the opera Messaline at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in late 1900, one of his final creative surges before his death in September 1901. The historical-operatic subject was unusual in his late output and seems to have been seized upon with genuine enthusiasm — he produced a sequence of Messalina works in the final months of his life. The classical theme of licentious imperial Rome given operatic treatment provided Lautrec with theatrical spectacle, costume, and movement, all subjects he had always found compelling.

The Messalina figure is portrayed with the theatrical colour and gestural energy appropriate to operatic spectacle, a contrast to the quieter register of his late portraits. Rich costume colours and the movement of the operatic stage are rendered with thinly applied but expressive paint, showing Lautrec's enduring facility even in his last year.