Temporal distance and reverence dehumanize historical figures. It makes them seem beholding some kind of higher standard than everybody else. Which is not true. We're all human after all. Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa (commonly known simply as Toulouse-Lautrec) was a great painter with unique sensibility. As a trailblazer of post-impressionist age, he further explored the mundane moments in exquisite detail. But that's not what this post is about.
Toulouse-Lautrec was also quite an eccentric as confirmed by this infamous series of photos. The images document Toulouse-Lautrec in the act of defecating on the nondescript beachside. It is like one of those post-Fluxus performance documents except a 70 or so years earlier so it is way cooler.
And it would have been great to leave these image as they are barren of context. But you would like to know how they came around - so here it is.
The year is 1898. It was a tumultuous year for Toulouse-Lautrec. For the last fifteen years he was to trying to break out in the Paris art scene. The results were middling, he had an occasional showings here and there but he was far from a bonafide success. But now it seemed like he was going to make it.
Around this time, his lifelong friend Maurice Joyant, a gallery owner, had arranged an his exhibition in Goupil and Cie. It was supposed to be something crowning moment for Henri. But it ended up being a whimper. It definitely wasn't a success. Mostly because Toulouse-Lautrec wasn't considered a serious artist by Goupil and Cie crowd. Look at Henri from their perspective - that guy was a joke. He did posters for Moulin Rouge, that red scarf poster was garish, he was painting prostitutes and his nude stuff looked either ugly or weird. It didn't worked out.
Remember that Van Gogh's big retrospective that put him on the map and started a chain reaction of reappraisal of various post-impressionist artists from 1880s-90s took place in 1901. Toulouse-Lautrec's show was too soon and the surrounding narrative had no drama to engage the snobbish crowd.
The exhibition's lack of success spelled the end of Toulouse-Lautrec's life in Paris. Henri was sick and tired - lifelong alcohol abuse and syphilis took its tool. He was forced to move back to his parents, who also didn't happened to be fans of his works. But Joyant tried to cheer up Henri so that he would fade away completely.
One of the things they used to do was walking on the beaches of Le Crotoy in Picardie. It was a popular vacation place amongst French artists. One day Toulouse-Lautrec and Maurice Joyant were walking on the beach just like any other day. Joyant took a couple of photos of Toulouse-Lautrec fooling around, including defecation.
At the time these photos went unnoticed. It wasn't until much later, after Henri passed away and became recognized as one of the greats that these photos came into prominence. So that's that.
A bit later in 1898, Toulouse-Lautrec was sent to an asylum which perpetuated every singly distress and misery he had and added a couple of new ones in the process. Eventually, in 1901 the long-term effects of alcoholism and syphilis had a better of him and he passed away age 36.
In a way, these defecating on the beach photos are his LAST HURRAH. Just think about for a bit. Let it sink in. Feels right, huh?
