Woman on Her Back (Femme sur le dos)

Woman on Her Back (Femme sur le dos) is an intimate lithograph created in 1896 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in collaboration with master printer Auguste Clot. This striking print employs a subtle and unusual palette, utilizing green and red-brown inks to render the reclining female figure. The choice of lithography allowed Lautrec the spontaneity of drawing while enabling the production of fine art prints, a medium he championed during the 1890s.

The piece exemplifies the artist’s dedicated focus on the everyday lives of women in Parisian society, particularly those residing in the private world of the demimonde. Lautrec's perspective is observational and non-judgmental, capturing the subject not as an idealized nude, but in a moment of candid repose or exhaustion. The composition is simplified, using the limited color scheme to emphasize the contours of the figure against the background, a characteristic of the graphic arts prevalent in this era.

The work falls squarely within the critical French period of 1876 to 1900, when artists were seeking new forms of expression outside the strictures of traditional academic painting. The collaboration with Clot was essential for Lautrec, as Clot was renowned for his technical precision in handling the complexities of color printing, ensuring the artist's expressive lines were perfectly translated onto paper.

As an essential example of late 19th-century prints, the aesthetic innovations of this work profoundly influenced subsequent graphic artists. The piece is classified as a print and resides in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Its inclusion in major museum collections ensures that this era of French artistry, increasingly entering the public domain, remains accessible to scholars and enthusiasts.