Exposèes à la Plume

The Elles portfolio is Lautrec’s definitive work from the late 1890s and represents one of the pinnacles of color lithography. This image of a woman taking her hair down advertises the portfolio of ten lithographs (published in an edition of 100 by Gustave Pellet, Paris), and their exhibition at the gallery of La Plume magazine. With great subtlety, this image reveals the portfolio's subject matter: the private lives of prostitutes in Parisian brothels. The woman’s occupation could not be openly named or depicted, and the collection is called “Elles” ('Them' or 'Those Women'). Their profession is indicated subtly here by the presence of the gentleman's hat on the bed. The same design, without the bottom text, served as the portfolio’s cover and as frontispiece.