Woman with a Tray—Breakfast (Madame Baron and Mademoiselle Popo), plate two from Elles

Woman with a Tray—Breakfast (Madame Baron and Mademoiselle Popo), plate two from Elles, is a significant color lithograph created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1896. This piece, executed in multiple colors on ivory wove paper, was published by Gustave Pellet and likely printed by the noted lithographer Auguste Clot. The artwork belongs to the famed Elles portfolio, a pivotal series that documented the intimate, unvarnished daily lives of women in the brothels of Belle Époque France.

Toulouse-Lautrec utilized the lithographic medium to achieve the soft, subtle gradations and delicate washes of color characteristic of his mature graphic style. The scene depicts a quiet, unsensationalized breakfast service: one woman, identified as Madame Baron, sets down a tray while another, Mademoiselle Popo, rests half-dressed in bed. Unlike the theatrical publicity posters for which he was also known, this work rejects overt performance, focusing instead on a moment of domestic familiarity and exhaustion.

The artist achieves psychological depth through his skillful use of observation and unconventional framing, presenting these figures not as subjects of sensationalism, but as individuals caught in moments of ordinary existence. As a seminal example of fin-de-siècle prints, this work underscores Toulouse-Lautrec’s mastery of the graphic arts in Paris. Today, the original color lithograph resides in the esteemed permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, providing scholars and enthusiasts an essential document of late 19th-century French culture. Furthermore, the historical nature of the artwork means that high-resolution reproductions often circulate in the public domain for study and appreciation.