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Count Henri
de Toulouse-Lautrec was born Nov. 24, 1864 in Albi, France.
He was the son of wealthy and socially important parents, but he was
a delicate and often sick child. At the age of 14, in minor accidents,
he broke first one thigh bone and then the other. The bones did not
heal properly due to a rare bone disease and when he could finally
walk again, he had a normal torso with abnormally stunted legs. |
Since
he had shown talent in drawing as a very young child, his parents
encouraged him to take lessons with various teachers in Paris. He
frequented Impressionist circles and particularly admired Edgar
Degas. Between 1887 and 1897 Lautrec
produced the best and greatest part of his work. He painted, sketched,
made lithographs and posters, and illustrated books. His production
was enormous, for he worked feverishly, as if he knew that his days
were numbered. His illness began to affect his brain in 1898 and his
family sent him to a private asylum for treatment. While shut away
he worked on a series of circus drawings, which were instrumental
in securing his release, for the doctors recognized that they were
the work of a sane man. In the spring of 1901, he became partially
paralyzed and was taken to one of his family's estates at Malrome,
where he died a few months later.
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