In Bed (Au Lit)

In 1896, Toulouse-Lautrec created a suite of ten lithographs called ‘Elles’, devoted to the daily lives of prostitutes and kept women. Inspired in part by Japanese woodblock print albums such as Kitagawa Utamaro’s ‘The Twelve Hours in the Yoshiwara’ (c. 1795) and in part by his intermittent residence in the brothels of Montmartre in the mid 1890s, the series is now considered one of his greatest achievements as a lithographer. Although published by Gustave Pellet, who specialised in erotica, ‘Elles’ was remarkable for the stress it laid on the mundane details of its subjects’ existence as well as for the sense of sympathy, even complicity, between artist and subjects. That ‘Elles’ proved to be a commercial failure for Pellet may reflect its thwarting of expectations of the titillating, voyeuristic approach commonly associated with such scenes. Courtauld’s enthusiasm for Toulouse-Lautrec’s prints is borne out by the fact that they are represented in greater strength in his collection than those of any other artist-printmaker apart from Manet. Woman in Bed – Waking is one of two plates from ‘Elles’ that he owned. Printed in olive-green ink, it was drawn directly on the stone with Toulouse-Lautrec’s characteristic flowing line, its deceptive resemblance to a chalk drawing highlighting another important source of inspiration, the sensuous redchalk drawings of boudoir subjects popular in eighteenth-century France. The woman’s relatively luxurious surroundings suggest that she is a rich man’s mistress rather than a prostitute. All but buried in the bedclothes, her face half obscured by her hair – the true focus of the image is her lassitude. The direction of her gaze makes it clear that she is aware of being observed, but the languid nonchalance of her expression and pose suggests that she is little bothered by this. In Bed can be dated to the same period as ‘Elles’ in terms of its draughtsmanship and subject matter. However, it is not preparatory for any of the prints, and no printed version of the work exists. The fact that it was executed on a large sheet of high-quality paper and signed suggests that, in spite of the looseness of its execution, Toulouse-Lautrec considered it an independent work. The model lies in bed, with only her head and crossed, stockinged feet emerging from the rumpled bedclothes. The confident economy and rapidity of the lines – most apparent in the rendering of the legs and feet, whose forms the artist seems to seek as he works – makes it likely that the artist worked directly from the model; this likelihood is reinforced by the unusually low viewpoint, probably a result of Toulouse-Lautrec’s small stature. Despite the speed with which he worked, the care Toulouse-Lautrec took with the drawing is evident in the use of two subtly different media – soft black chalk for the majority of the composition, combined with a hard graphite pencil for the more detailed treatment of the model’s face and hair. Although the lower part of her face is obscured by her bunched clothing, her features display a vivid individuality. It has been suggested that the model was a woman he knew well and who is thought to appear in several of the ‘Elles’ prints, a prostitute named Pauline Baron, known as Mademoiselle Popo, and the angle of her gaze, under sagging eyelids, and the faint smile playing over her tired face suggest a calm and relaxed familiarity between artist and model.