At the Opera: Madame Caron in Faust

The influential post-Impressionist master Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901 created the print At the Opera: Madame Caron in Faust in 1893. This significant work is executed as a color lithograph on cream wove paper, showcasing Lautrec's technical mastery of the demanding printing process. The piece captures the celebrated soprano Rose Caron (1857-1930) during a performance of Charles Gounod's opera Faust, a popular fixture in the sophisticated late 19th-century Parisian cultural scene.

Lautrec specialized in depicting the social complexities of Belle Époque Paris, often translating his observations of nightlife and entertainment into bold, graphic works. This particular composition exemplifies the artist's focus on intimate, backstage, or audience moments rather than formal, posed portraiture. He utilizes sharp diagonals, dynamic cropping, and exaggerated color fields, techniques heavily influenced by Japanese prints, to convey a sense of immediacy and theatrical energy. The precise lighting emphasizes Madame Caron’s profile as she performs, distinguishing her from the indistinct, shadowed atmosphere of the opera house interior. This lithograph serves as a crucial document of performance art and celebrity culture in France at the time.

As an essential example of fine art prints from the period, the work demonstrates Lautrec's central role in elevating the status of the lithograph to that of an independent artistic form, rather than solely reproductive media. This iconic representation of fin-de-siècle France is permanently housed within the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.