Henri Toulouselautrec

French artist and painter whose great influence on Post-impressionist French art came after his death. Physically deformed by accidents that broke both of his thighs in adolescence, he abandoned his aristocratic upbringing and immersed himself in the bohemian entertainment of the 1890s, providing vivid portrayals of prostitutes and other performers and audiences of the Parisian entertainment spots of that era, including the Moulin Rouge. The only surviving child of an eccentric count and his shy wife, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec slipped on a polished floor on 5/30/1878 and broke his left thigh. In August 1879, he stumbled into a ditch and broke his right thigh. The accidents left him crippled for life, and his growth was frozen at 5’1". Despite the deformity, Toulouse-Lautrec’s charisma and wit allowed him to fit in well with Parisian counterculture of his time during the 1880s and 1890s. He turned his back on his aristocratic family life, and moved to the Montmarte district of Paris when he was 19, dividing his time between painting and Paris nightlife. He completed his first painting at the end of 1879. In 1882, he began to study painting formally. In 1886, he had his first exhibition at the Salon des Arts Incoherents. In 1891, he prepared his first poster for the Moulin Rouge nightclub, and his fame started. By 1894, he had taken up residence in a high-class house of prostitution in the Rue des Moulins. He lived in this brothel and others on and off for the rest of his life. His life of working all day, drinking all evening, and nightly indulgences (he was also syphilitic) eventually took its toll. He began to deteriorate from alcoholism, and on 3/17/1899, he was sent to a private mental home with delirium tremors, but within months of his release was drinking heavily again. He had a slight stroke in February 1901. He was struck down with paralysis on 8/20/1901, and died at 2:15 AM on 9/09/1901. Link to Wikipedia biography