Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Chocolat Dansant Dans Un Bar

1896
Bridgeman Art Library/Musee Toulouse Lautrec
Albi, France

28 x 21 cm
Photo color relief illustration

(click to enlarge)

The Irish and American Bar was a quite famous bar on the rue Royale, known for hard drinkers and populated by famous figures of parisian bohemia. It was pictured five times by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec.

Chocolat, the notorious cuban clown would also go there with his partner Footit after the circus show and perform once in a while. At one of the happenings he was eternized by Lautrec, dancing drunk at the bar. Ralph, a half american barman from San Franciso, very known for his ability in mixing exceptional cocktails, stares at him together with other devotees of the far from overblown, smoky place.

Footit and Chocolat began at the Cirque Médrano in 1886, prospering throughout the 1890s and early 1900s at the most fashionable Parisian circus, the Nouveau Cirque. Their slapstick pranks, in which Chocolat was the victim of the violent, yet apathetic Footit, were popular with all levels of society, attracting the attention of many intellectuals and artists.

An alcoholic for most of his adult life, Toulouse-Lautrec was a frequent guest of the bar and mostly the last one to leave the place. The artist was placed in a sanatorium shortly before his death. He died from complications due to alcoholism and syphilis at the family estate in Malromé, fewer than three months before his 37th birthday.

David Hockney - American Collectors

1968
Los Angeles

Acrylic on canvas
213.4 x 304.8 cm (83 7/8 x 120 in.)

(click to enlarge)

A great portrait by the frail, yet striking style of David Hockney, an important contributor to the British Pop art movement of the 1960s, also famous for his photographic collages and watercolour portraits.

Two members of the wealthy ruling class of Los Angeles are personified by 20th century manneristic figures typifying american affluent art collectors.

Pushing the borders of caricature, their unbalanced faces have traces of lunacy, detachment and wickedness, their bodies match exactly the sculptures placed in their fancy garden: Fred Weisman stands rigid just as the stony William Turnbull sculpture in front of him, Marcia Weisman however seems to weave her arms into the pink vintage gown, an echo of the Henry Moore sculpture in the background.

The transposing of physical form from art to collector and their weird expressions bring a delicate topic to the surface, the connection between power and tedium. In a material plan they are similar to their purchase, but the indifference in the face of both nobles takes them miles (or millions) away from the costly fine art.