The Clown: M. Joret

"The Clown: M. Joret," created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1885, is an important early example of the artist's acute observational drawings of Parisian life. Classified strictly as a drawing, the work employs pen and black ink, though time and light exposure have resulted in the fading of the original pigment to its current deep brown tonality. This direct and detailed study captures a specific sitter, believed to be M. Joret, a comedian and performer active in the café-concert and circus circuits that became central to Toulouse-Lautrec’s thematic focus.

The subject of professional clowns and stage performers was critical to the artist’s burgeoning oeuvre, allowing him to explore the sharp contrast between the performer’s public persona and the reality underneath the makeup. Unlike many of his later, broadly executed lithographs, this 1885 drawing demonstrates the precise and economical linear quality of his early academic training. Toulouse-Lautrec uses rapid, expressive cross-hatching and contour lines characteristic of the drawing medium to suggest the texture of the costume and the psychological intensity of the sitter. The work underscores the artist's commitment to documenting the fleeting world of entertainment, a practice that informed his subsequent groundbreaking prints.

As a significant preparatory study and self-contained piece, The Clown: M. Joret offers viewers insight into Toulouse-Lautrec's foundational mastery of ink handling before his shift toward commercial poster production and color lithography. Such works from this era often enter the public domain, making high-quality reproductions and art prints widely accessible. This crucial document of 19th-century theatrical portraiture resides in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.