Dans La Glu, from the series Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert was one of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite subjects. With her tall, lanky physique and unconventional voice, she was unique among Montmartre’s café-concert and cabaret performers. She wore long black gloves and dresses with plunging necklines that emphasized her gaunt form, a characteristic that Toulouse-Lautrec seized upon in his numerous images of the singer. Here he captures her singing La Glu, a lurid song about a man and his mistress. It was precisely the contrast between Guilbert’s girlish, seemingly innocent appearance and the shocking, often raunchy lyrics of her songs that made her one of Montmartre’s biggest stars.