Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert is a significant 1894 work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, executed as a lithograph in olive green. This masterful piece of printmaking captures the iconic stage presence of Yvette Guilbert, the renowned Parisian chansonnier and cabaret star of the Belle Époque. As a key figure in the French art world during the period 1876 to 1900, Toulouse-Lautrec dedicated much of his output to documenting the vibrant and often gritty theatrical life of Montmartre. The classification of this specific impression as a Portfolio piece suggests it was intended for curated circulation among collectors rather than mass public advertising, yet it retains the immediate and graphic power characteristic of his celebrated poster designs.

Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated by Guilbert’s distinctive performance style, which relied heavily on exaggerated facial expressions and gestures, often amplified by her signature long, black gloves. This lithograph exemplifies the artist’s unparalleled ability to distill personality using minimal color and bold contour lines, moving beyond simple portraiture into acute character study. The restrictive palette, limited here primarily to olive green, emphasizes form and movement over realistic detail, a graphic innovation highly influential on subsequent generations of artists working in commercial prints and illustration.

The proliferation of high-quality fine art prints during this fin-de-siècle period made works like Yvette Guilbert instrumental in defining the modernity of late 19th-century French culture. Today, this essential lithograph is part of the extensive collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., preserving the legacy of this pivotal French artist. Its institutional presence ensures that the bold, innovative techniques developed by Toulouse-Lautrec remain visible and accessible, contributing to the available resources of public domain images for the study of modern graphic arts.