May Belfort

May Belfort is a highly characteristic late work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, executed in 1898. Classified as a print, the piece was created using the delicate and direct technique of crayon lithography on china paper. This medium was central to Toulouse-Lautrec’s practice, allowing him to capture the ephemeral energy of fin-de-siècle Paris with immediacy and graphic strength. The careful handling of the crayon creates soft tonal gradations and rich blacks, emphasizing line and shadow over large fields of color, distinguishing this work from traditional reproductive prints.

The artwork serves as a powerful portrait of the popular Irish cabaret performer May Belfort, one of the many women entertainers who populated the vibrant social scene of Montmartre. Belfort was known for her distinctive, somewhat subversive stage persona: performing childlike songs while clad in baby clothes and invariably holding a black cat. This focus on documenting the individual personalities of performers, dancers, and actresses defined much of Toulouse-Lautrec’s output. He often sketched his subjects from life in venues like the Moulin Rouge, creating intimate yet incisive visual biographies of fin-de-siècle French culture.

As an innovative graphic artist, Toulouse-Lautrec played a crucial role in elevating the status of the lithographic print from commercial advertising to high art. The treatment of the figure in this work demonstrates the artist's Post-Impressionist sensibilities and his masterful ability to convey psychological depth through simplified form and bold contours. This superb impression of May Belfort is held within the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, representing a key example of the French graphic arts revolution at the close of the nineteenth century.