L’Automobiliste

Henri (Marie Raymond) Count de Toulouse - Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker and lithographer who was a true chronicler of his time, the Belle Époque (the beautiful age from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the First World War). A period characterized by general prosperity, enormous developments in the arts and sciences and a high degree of social peace. Toulouse-Lautrec was an aristocrat who generously partook in the nightlife of Paris during this period. As an artist and true observer of his time he was known to depict the intimate moments of the outcasts of his society without moralizing or pretentious commentary. Toulouse-Lautrec often frequented the premises of “La Revue Blanche” (a French art and literary magazine) where he met automobile fanatics such as Octave Mirbeau, Bonnard, Apollinaire and Tristan Bernard. However, he was above all a horseman and did not share their passion. This lithograph is his one and only testimony to the automobile and moreover, it is quite clear that the automobile merely is an accessory in the composition to that which really interests him, the driver of the automobile. This is a portrait of his cousin (and friend in night-walking) Dr. Gabriel Tapie de Celeyran at the steering wheel of an early motor car. Toulouse-Lautrec transforms his cousin into the archetype of the driver of the time, fierce, tenacious, and courageous. His cousin’s fashionable getup of ample goatskin furs, and a goggle mask (with enormous eyes) all add up to the heroic charm of motoring and the mysterious disguise that seduced most drivers. The lithograph bears Toulouse-Lautrec’s monogram in the lower right corner. Of this original edition of 20 lithograph copies, only seven are accounted for worldwide.