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.