Page:The illustrators of Montmartre.pdf/43

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H. DE TOULOUSE LAUTREC
25

peculiar firmament of the Cafés Chantants, to which Lautrec was drawn as a moth to the flame.

He lithographed posters of Cissy Loftus, of the beautiful Anna Held, La Goulue the dancer of the Moulin Rouge, and May Belfort; and being particularly attracted by the picturesque possibilities of Yvette Guilbert, with her then lithe figure and inevitable long black gloves, he introduces her into many of his works. Then there is a remarkable poster advertising Babylone d' Allemagne, and a yet more striking one for Le Vache Enragée, where we see a mad cow charging an old coloured dandy down a street. There is also the startling advertisement for L'artisan moderne, and the truly terrible "At the Foot of the Scaffold." Apart from these there are his posters 'in little," and programme-covers, such as those for Le Missionaire and L' Argent.

The very peculiarities and incomprehensibilities inherent in Lautrec's work were sure to arrest attention, and demand that scrutiny which is of the very essence of the successful poster. In every one of Lautrec's poster designs there is something