The Milliner (La Modiste - Renée Vert)

The Milliner (La Modiste - Renée Vert) is a striking lithograph in green created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1893. This piece stands as a seminal example of the artist's dedication to printmaking during the dynamic French artistic period spanning 1876 to 1900. Unlike many contemporaries who focused on oil painting, Toulouse-Lautrec fully embraced the graphic medium, utilizing the expressive potential of lithography to capture the intimate, unvarnished realities of Parisian life.

The subject, Renée Vert, a working milliner, is depicted in a moment of quiet industry. Toulouse-Lautrec often documented the world of theaters, cafés, and tradespeople in Montmartre, and this specific work offers a glimpse into a common occupation in late nineteenth-century society. The technical execution, utilizing only a single color ink-green-highlights the composition's powerful reliance on line and contour. The technique ensures that the figure and setting maintain a sense of immediacy, characteristic of the artist's rapid, observational sketching style directly translated onto the lithographic stone. The resulting print achieves a delicate balance between atmospheric mood and sharp psychological insight.

This lithograph is currently held within the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Toulouse-Lautrec's mastery of the medium contributed significantly to the poster and art prints movement of the era, democratizing art by making it accessible to a wider public. Today, high-quality images of important historical prints like La Modiste are frequently digitized and released into the public domain, ensuring their continued study and appreciation by art historians and graphic arts enthusiasts worldwide.