Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge
Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864 - 1901)
Date: 1892
Medium: Oil on cardboard
Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States
Description
A man and woman standing with their backs to us face a room where others stand or pose in this vertical painting. Though made with oil on cardboard, the paint is applied loosely with visible strokes so the painting looks more like a pastel drawing. The people have peach-colored or mint-green skin. Cut off by the left edge of the painting, the man wears a black top hat and suit. We only see the short blond hair behind one ear and the jutting cheekbone and jaw of his profile. The woman takes up almost the left half of the picture. She wears a flat, brown coat outlined in royal blue, a fur stole around her neck, and a blue hat with flowers. Her brown hair is pulled up, and she looks to our right in profile with pale, nearly ash-white skin. Across from the couple, to our right and farther into the room, a woman wearing a teal-green dress stands with her feet planted wide so her feet flare out and her hands on her hips. Her body is squared toward the couple, and she looks off to our left. A black hat perches on her yellow hair, which is piled atop her head. She cocks one eyebrow over green eyes, and her lips curl in a lopsided sneer over a double chin. A tawny-brown corset under her bust cinches her waist. She gathers the skirt in fistfuls with each hand to reveal white petticoats and black boots or shoes.
