Existing comment:
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
The Old Stories, 1893
The real people who populate Toulouse-Lautrec's world are well known. Most are outrageous denizens of the demimonde he portrayed in a fiery and sometimes even wild post-impressionist style. Here we see the artist in a calmer mode as he shows a respectable-looking man in a top hat leading a pet bear on a leash along the banks of the Seine. The subject is the musician and composer Desire Dihau, who was earlier also portrayed by Degas in a painting now in the Musee d'Orsay. Lautrec also later made a lithographic portrait of Dihau that he gave to Degas. The bear stands for the lyricist Goudezki. |