Di ti Fellow, English Singer in a Café-Concert

Di ti Fellow, English Singer in a Café-Concert by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901 is a significant example of the artist’s immersive documentation of fin-de-siècle Parisian entertainment. Executed in 1898, this work is classified as a print, specifically a lithograph produced on a delicate grayish-ivory laid China paper. Lautrec utilized the lithographic process to capture the immediate, flickering atmosphere of the café-concerts, demonstrating his pivotal role in elevating commercial printmaking to the status of high art.

Toulouse-Lautrec consistently centered his artistic practice around the performers, patrons, and marginalized figures inhabiting the cabaret and brothel culture of Montmartre in France. The subject, an English singer, emphasizes the cosmopolitan nature of these late 19th-century venues, which attracted a diverse group of international entertainers. This piece is characteristic of the artist’s style, featuring dynamic compositions and expressive draftsmanship that suggest motion and sound without relying on detailed rendering.

As a late-period work, created just three years before his death, the technique in Di ti Fellow, English Singer in a Café-Concert showcases Lautrec’s mastery of line economy and subtle tonal variations possible through his handling of the stone. His dedication to printmaking ensured that his powerful visual commentaries on modern life were widely circulated. This important contribution to the history of prints resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.