Toulouse-Lautrec (1854-1901) was transformed by his discovery of the Montmartre section in Paris. He devoted his artistic talent to painting this unique microcosm, with its intriguing blend of the vulgar and the aristrocratic, and his favorite haunts, the Moulin Rouge, the Moulin de la Galette, the Mirliton, the Char Noir, and the Cabaret of Aristide Braunt. Toulouse-Lautrec is remembered above all as a witty and playful observer of his age. It was in his portraits of the diverse variety of people in Montmartre that he could most freely express himself as a caricacturist, acclaimed in his lifetime as a poster designer and illustrator. It was only a few years after his death that he became famous as a painter.
