La toilette (Celle qui se peigne)

Painted in 1891 and now at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, this work of a woman combing her hair — la toilette — belongs to the tradition of intimate female observation that runs from Degas through Lautrec's own sustained interest in women's private rituals. The combing of hair was among Degas's preferred subjects, and Lautrec's version approaches it with characteristic directness. The Ashmolean, with its broad European art collection, holds this as a representative example of Lautrec's intimate domestic subjects alongside more celebrated works in French national collections.

The woman combing her hair is caught in a reflexive movement, the arms raised, the head inclined, the hair half-arranged. Lautrec renders the flow of the hair with empathetic observation, his thin paint capturing the texture and weight of the gathered tresses. The figure is observed from behind or in three-quarter view, a compositional choice that emphasises the unselfconscious intimacy of the moment.