Maxime Dethomas

Maxime Dethomas is a significant portrait painted by the renowned French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1896. Executed in oil on cardboard, this medium was frequently favored by Toulouse-Lautrec toward the end of his career for its portability and ability to quickly absorb the pigment, lending a dry, matte finish to his compositions. The work belongs squarely within the transformative period spanning 1876 to 1900, when French art transitioned from Impressionism toward the sharper psychological and formal investigations of Post-Impressionism.

The subject, Maxime Dethomas (1867-1929), was a designer and fellow artist who frequently associated with the circles of the Parisian avant-garde. Toulouse-Lautrec captures Dethomas in an intimate, unidealized manner characteristic of the artist’s oeuvre. The composition features loose, rapid brushstrokes, defining the contours of the sitter’s head and jacket while leaving the background largely ambiguous. This technique emphasizes the immediacy of the encounter and the artist’s exceptional skill in rendering character through simple, yet dynamic, applications of paint. Unlike the highly detailed portraits of earlier periods, this work focuses less on status and more on the fleeting moment and the personality of the sitter.

While Toulouse-Lautrec is perhaps most celebrated for his bold commercial lithographs and advertising prints, which documented the lively theatrical and cabaret life of Montmartre, this small painting offers an important insight into his private studies. Many of his graphic works have since entered the public domain, making his iconic imagery widely accessible; however, works such as Maxime Dethomas reveal the subtle complexity of his painting technique. This portrait is a masterful example of late 19th-century French painting and is currently housed in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art.