What the Rain Says (Ce que dit la pluie) from Quatorze lithographies originales (Mélodies de Désiré Dihau)

What the Rain Says (Ce que dit la pluie) from Quatorze lithographies originales (Mélodies de Désiré Dihau) is a seminal lithograph created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1895. This work belongs to a series of prints intended to accompany musical compositions by Désiré Dihau, a contemporary French bassoonist and composer. Though the images were conceived and executed in the mid-1890s, the complete set of Quatorze lithographies originales was not officially published until 1935. This classification as an Illustrated Book highlights Toulouse-Lautrec's frequent collaboration with literary and musical figures of the Parisian avant-garde.

Toulouse-Lautrec was a highly innovative master of printmaking, utilizing the lithographic process to achieve a distinctive graphic style characterized by sharp, abbreviated lines and an almost sketch-like immediacy. This approach allowed him to capture the specific atmosphere and mood of fin-de-siècle French society, whether documenting the life of the theater, the café-concert, or private moments, as likely suggested by the melancholic title of this piece. The simplicity and economy of line present in this print reflect the artist's deep engagement with both Post-Impressionist aesthetics and the structural elegance found in Japanese woodcut designs.

The lithograph, rooted in the creative period of 1895, showcases Toulouse-Lautrec's profound ability to infuse observational realism with emotional depth. Though many of his famous prints were large-format posters, the intimate scale of this work demonstrates his versatility across media. Today, this important example of French graphic art resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, underscoring its historical significance and its enduring contribution to modern printmaking and the field of the Illustrated Book.