Mary Hamilton (from Le Café Concert)

Mary Hamilton (from Le Café Concert) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is a masterful example of late 19th-century graphic art, created in 1893. This compelling print is classified as a brush and crayon lithograph, rendered uniquely in light olive green ink on delicate laid Japan paper. As the only state of this particular impression, it showcases Toulouse-Lautrec’s sophisticated technical approach to the relatively new medium of color prints. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds this important piece in its extensive collection of graphic works.

The work focuses on Mary Hamilton, a performer who, like many women of the era, populated the booming Parisian entertainment scene documented extensively by the artist. Toulouse-Lautrec frequently depicted the complex social dynamics of the café-concerts and music halls, capturing his subjects with a distinctive psychological depth and lack of romantic embellishment. His use of brush and crayon marks emphasizes texture and rapid movement, characteristics essential for commercial art during this period. This particular lithograph captures the visual language of the fin de siècle nightlife, a major theme for the artist. Toulouse-Lautrec’s genius lay in translating the immediacy of sketchwork into the reproducible format of fine art prints. The enduring importance of the print, which captures the transient nature of modern life, confirms the artist’s status as a pivotal figure in Post-Impressionism. Because of the classification and age of this artwork, high-quality images of Mary Hamilton are often made available through public domain initiatives, allowing broader study of the master’s technique.