At the Concert

"At the Concert" is a significant lithograph created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901, in 1896. This print, rendered on cream wove paper, exemplifies Lautrec's intense focus on the social fabric and underground entertainment of the Parisian Belle Époque. As one of the most celebrated chroniclers of late 19th-century France, Toulouse-Lautrec utilized the accessible medium of printmaking to disseminate his observations, capturing the unvarnished reality of the city's café-concerts, theaters, and brothels.

While the title suggests a musical performance, the focus of the work is characteristically less on the stage and more on the atmosphere and the audience. Toulouse-Lautrec’s masterful handling of the lithograph technique allowed him to achieve nuanced tonal variations and fluid, expressive contours, characteristics that defined his modernist approach to figure study. By printing the image directly from the greasy crayon marks applied to the stone, the artist achieved the necessary immediacy to depict fleeting moments. The piece functions not merely as documentation but as a psychological commentary on the performers and patrons inhabiting the crowded, artificial light of the public venues of France.

Classified specifically as a Print, this piece solidifies Toulouse-Lautrec's status as a pivotal Post-Impressionist master who elevated commercial art forms to fine art. Many of the artist’s prolific prints from this period, including subjects like At the Concert, are now highly valued historical records. The original 1896 lithograph is held within the esteemed permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.