Yvette Guilbert - French Series

Yvette Guilbert - French Series is a seminal lithograph created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1894. This classification as a book print indicates its intended use as part of a published portfolio or album dedicated to the celebrated French cabaret star, Yvette Guilbert. Guilbert’s distinctive public persona, characterized by exaggerated gestures and her signature long black gloves, made her an immediate icon of the fin de siècle entertainment scene in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec, an avid chronicler of Montmartre’s nightlife, utilized the swift and graphic potential of lithography to portray the immediacy and energy of the modern urban performer.

The work belongs to a concentrated series focused on Guilbert, demonstrating Toulouse-Lautrec’s deep commitment to documenting the figures of the demimonde. As a central artistic figure documenting the changing culture of France, the artist focused on capturing the essential personality of his subjects, often through the lens of affectionate caricature and bold compositional choices. He exploited the inherent flatness of the print medium to achieve a powerful, graphic shorthand. This approach moved beyond idealized portraiture, treating the performer less as an artistic muse and more as a psychological study of a modern celebrity.

Dating from 1894, this impression is a particularly fine example of Toulouse-Lautrec’s extensive graphic output and his pioneering role in elevating poster art and prints to a high art form. The lasting legacy of his documentation of Parisian life ensures the continual study of his methods; today, high-quality prints and related imagery from this period are often available in the public domain for research and scholarly inquiry. This important lithograph is currently held in the esteemed collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it helps preserve a vital piece of the artist’s influential graphic history.