Le Café-concert: Mme. Abdala

Le Café-concert: Mme. Abdala is a defining lithograph created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1893. This piece captures the bohemian energy and intimate drama of the Parisian nightlife scenes that the artist frequently documented. Toulouse-Lautrec was deeply embedded in the world of the café-concert and cabaret, making the performers and spectators of Montmartre his primary subjects. This work, a high-quality example of fin-de-siècle French printmaking, exemplifies his immediate and expressive drawing style applied directly to the printing stone.

The subject, Mme. Abdala, is rendered with characteristic economy of line, focusing on gesture and expression rather than superfluous detail. Toulouse-Lautrec was instrumental in elevating the status of the print medium in the 1890s, utilizing the lithograph’s capacity for bold massing and textural experimentation to capture the raw energy of his subjects. His aesthetic emphasis on flat color planes and simplified forms was highly influential on subsequent poster design throughout France.

As a lithographic Print, this work documents not only a specific figure from the Parisian stage but also the artist’s groundbreaking shift toward modern, commercial, and expressive art forms. Toulouse-Lautrec often used the print medium to quickly disseminate his observations, turning these artistic records into widely recognized images associated with the decadent culture of the era. This exceptional impression currently resides in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.