Album Cover is a significant graphic work created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1894. This piece, classified as a Portfolio item, was executed using the demanding process of lithography, printed specifically in a distinctive olive green ink. Toulouse-Lautrec was a revolutionary master of the graphic arts during the fertile period stretching from 1876 to 1900, transforming the advertising poster and the medium of prints into highly valued fine art.
Representative of late nineteenth-century French culture, the work reflects the artist's deep immersion in the world of Parisian fin-de-siècle society, encompassing cabarets, theaters, and popular entertainment. The year 1894 marks the peak of the artist’s prolific printmaking career, during which he produced numerous commercial and fine art lithographs. The Portfolio classification suggests the lithograph was intended as part of a curated collection, often sold to connoisseurs, distinguishing it slightly from his larger format posters intended for street display. This intimate scale allowed Toulouse-Lautrec to experiment with subtle tonal variations and textural effects inherent in the lithographic process, achieving a sophisticated, yet immediate visual impact.
The work showcases Lautrec’s characteristic Post-Impressionist approach to design, prioritizing dynamic energy, simplified forms, and expressive line work over academic realism. The use of a monochrome palette, specifically the specialized olive green, highlights the artist's deliberate attention to color harmony and mood within the constrained format of the portfolio piece.
The importance of this work to the study of modern graphic media is evidenced by its inclusion in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, where it serves as a key example of the period’s innovations. Like many essential historical prints, high-resolution imagery of this artwork may be available for scholarly study through the public domain collections of the museum, ensuring broader access to the technical brilliance of Toulouse-Lautrec’s influential output.
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