Edmée Lescot

Edmée Lescot is a significant print created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1893. This piece, executed as a lithograph, exemplifies the artist's masterful deployment of the graphic medium to capture the vibrant, fleeting nature of Parisian life during the Belle Époque. As a classification of prints, lithography allowed the artist to distribute images widely, mirroring the populist and public nature of his chosen subject matter.

Toulouse-Lautrec became renowned for immortalizing the figures he encountered in the theaters, cafés, and brothels of Montmartre, documenting the social landscape of turn-of-the-century France. While the sitter, Edmée Lescot, is not extensively documented, the work adopts the direct, unromanticized style characteristic of Toulouse-Lautrec’s portrayals of women in the 1890s. The artist employs a powerful economy of line, defining the figure and conveying character and atmosphere with minimal detail—a trait highly valued in contemporary French poster art and independent lithographs of the era.

This particular example reflects the period when Toulouse-Lautrec prioritized the graphic arts, producing some of the most iconic posters and independent prints of the late 19th century. The widespread appeal of such artwork, including prints that are increasingly entering the public domain, cemented his reputation as a key Post-Impressionist chronicler of his age. This important work, Edmée Lescot, is held in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, representing a crucial moment in the history of modern graphic media.