Frontispiece

The Frontispiece, created in 1896 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and master printer Auguste Clot, exemplifies the sophisticated potential of collaborative fine art publishing during the fin de siècle. Classified as a French print from the critical period 1876 to 1900, this piece is a lithograph realized using a complex and deliberate palette of olive green, blue, and orange inks. This technical approach required advanced registration and printing expertise, a hallmark of Clot’s Parisian workshop.

Lautrec, already renowned for transforming commercial art into high-impact graphic design, partnered with Clot to produce limited-edition art portfolios. The function of a frontispiece is typically to introduce or preface a larger body of work, yet the composition stands alone as a potent example of Lautrec’s signature style. The work relies on fluid draftsmanship, a sense of kinetic energy, and the artist’s characteristic capacity for distilling complex social observation into immediate, powerful imagery.

The use of color in this lithograph is particularly notable. The contrast between the deep olive base and the vibrant spots of blue and orange highlights the artistic move toward expressive, non-naturalistic color palettes common among late Post-Impressionist artists. Clot’s meticulous handling of the stones ensured that the delicate washes and precise linework essential to Lautrec’s design were perfectly translated. This piece documents the pivotal role that graphic arts and high-quality prints played in modern French culture, allowing avant-garde work to reach a wider audience than traditional painting.

This significant work is housed in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. The legacy of these collaborative art prints underscores the importance of the graphic medium at the close of the nineteenth century. As a key artistic document from this period, high-resolution imagery of this piece is often made available through public domain initiatives, ensuring its accessibility for scholarly study.