Zamboula-Polka

Zamboula-Polka is a significant lithograph created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901, in 1900. Executed late in the artist’s prolific, yet brief, career, this print exemplifies Lautrec's enduring commitment to chronicling the dynamic popular culture of fin-de-siècle France. The work is printed as a lithograph on cream wove paper, a medium that Lautrec mastered, utilizing its versatility to achieve rich textures and saturated color fields.

Lautrec specialized in capturing the vibrant nightlife and commercial entertainment of the Belle Époque, particularly the cabarets and music halls of Montmartre. While he is most famous for posters depicting dancers like La Goulue and performers at the Moulin Rouge, this piece reflects a broader cultural interest in popular music and exotic themes. The artwork likely served as a design for sheet music or a program cover, demonstrating how the artist seamlessly blurred the lines between high art and commercial graphic design. Lautrec revolutionized the status of prints, elevating the poster from mere advertisement to a legitimate art form, influencing subsequent generations of artists in France and beyond.

The characteristic precision of Lautrec’s draughtsmanship, combined with a striking compositional flatness derived from Japanese ukiyo-e prints, imbues the image with immediacy and energy. His bold, economic use of line was essential for conveying motion and atmosphere. As the original work has passed out of copyright, high-quality images of this piece, like many of Lautrec’s renowned prints, are now considered part of the public domain. This particular impression of Zamboula-Polka is a valued part of the permanent collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.