Miss May Belfort Taking a Bow

Miss May Belfort Taking a Bow by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901) captures the spirit of fin-de-siècle Parisian nightlife through the specialized medium of the color lithograph. Executed in 1895 on cream wove paper, this piece demonstrates Lautrec’s mastery of the demanding printing process. Lithography allowed the artist to achieve the quick, painterly effects that characterize his renowned depictions of cabarets and performers. The subject, May Belfort, was an Irish singer known for her deliberately childlike persona, often singing suggestive songs while wearing infant-like attire, a popular and paradoxical act in the bustling Montmartre venues.

Toulouse-Lautrec excelled in capturing the specific, often fleeting, celebrity of the music halls in France during the 1890s. His graphic work often functioned as both fine art and promotional material, blurring the line between high and low culture. In works like Miss May Belfort Taking a Bow, he uses stark outlines and broad fields of color to isolate the performer in a moment of dramatic interaction with the audience, a characteristic Post-Impressionist approach to portraiture. The popularity and accessibility of these commercial prints ensured that Lautrec’s unique and immediate vision of Parisian society reached a wide audience.

The immediacy and technical sophistication of this depiction make it a key example of the artist’s mature printmaking style. This important color lithograph is preserved in the extensive collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it serves as a significant record of French graphic art at the close of the 19th century. Today, high-resolution reproductions of such celebrated graphic pieces often enter the public domain, allowing broader study of Toulouse-Lautrec's lasting influence on modern graphic design.