May Milton

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created May Milton, a striking color lithograph, in 1895. This piece exemplifies his mastery of the printed medium, a technique he heavily utilized to blur the lines between high art and commercial poster design. Executed in France during the height of the belle époque, the work captures the dynamic energy of Parisian nightlife. The lithographic process allowed Lautrec to use bold outlines and flat areas of vibrant color, reflecting both the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints and the speed required for contemporary advertising.

The subject is the English dancer May Milton, a popular performer in the Parisian cabarets of the 1890s, recognizable by her distinctive costume and energetic stage presence. Toulouse-Lautrec rarely idealized his subjects; instead, he captured the immediacy and sometimes harsh reality of performers' lives, using subtle distortion and caricature to emphasize personality. In this particular piece, the dancer’s form is rendered with rapid, economical lines, drawing the viewer's eye to her dramatic movement. This classification as a print allowed for the wide dissemination of Toulouse-Lautrec's images, establishing his reputation as a key chronicler of the era.

As a crucial document of fin-de-siècle graphic art, the lithograph is highly valued in museum collections. This impression resides within the distinguished permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Though many Toulouse-Lautrec works are now in the public domain, making high-quality prints accessible for study, the original color lithographs retain their significance as unique historical artifacts of late 19th-century French culture and graphic innovation.