Bartet and Mounet-Sully, in Antigone

Bartet and Mounet-Sully, in Antigone, created in 1893 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901, is a masterful lithograph executed on cream wove paper. Lautrec’s embrace of lithography during the 1890s was pivotal to his career, enabling him to produce graphic works that captured the immediacy of contemporary Parisian life and allowed for wide distribution within France. This medium, classified simply as a print, became synonymous with the artist’s output, blurring the lines between fine art and commercial illustration.

The subject documents two giants of the contemporary French stage, Bartet and Mounet-Sully, appearing in a production of Sophocles’ classical tragedy, Antigone. Toulouse-Lautrec utilized the theater not merely as entertainment, but as a rich source for psychological study, constantly observing actors, dancers, and singers. His characteristic economy of line, combined with expressive shading via the lithographic crayon, conveys the inherent drama and emotional intensity of the stage performance.

This piece offers valuable insight into the cultural movements of fin-de-siècle France, where established classical narratives were continually reinterpreted for modern sensibilities. The graphic intensity and focus on individual character defined Lautrec’s contribution to post-Impressionist printmaking. The work remains an exceptional example of the artist’s dedication to capturing the dynamic intersection of celebrity and drama, and this impression is held within the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The widespread availability of such images helped cement Lautrec’s reputation as one of the era’s foremost graphic artists, paving the way for public domain accessibility of similar prints today.