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Seven people with cream-white skin crowd together, sitting at or standing among tables in an interior space in this vertical painting. The composition is dominated by shades of blue and pale green. On the right side and closest to us, a woman sits opposite a man at a butter-yellow table, both facing our left in profile. The table extends in from the right, almost halfway up the canvas. The pair are shown from the knees up and span most of the height of the painting. The woman wears a long, teal-blue jacket over a peanut-brown skirt and a frilled cap topped with a pine-green bow. The man wears an olive-green bowler and cinnamon-brown coat, and rests one arm on the table. Two glasses sit on the table in front of them. In the center of the painting, a woman wearing a long, black coat stands on the far side of the table, her head nearly reaching the top edge of the composition. Her body is angled slightly to our right and she gazes off in that direction. Beyond her is another table with two men partly obscured by the couple in front of us. One sitting at the table has flame-red hair topped with a round cap, and a portion of his aqua and peacock-blue striped jacket is visible. Near him, another person in a dark garment with a high collar stands with their back to us, most of the head cropped by the top edge. Along the left side, two women stand one behind the other with their backs to us. The woman closest to us looks away, wearing a short, parchment-white jacket over an aquamarine-blue skirt. The jacket is belted at the waist and the collar, upper back, and long cuffs are rust red. The woman beyond her turns her head to our right in profile, and wears a light blue jacket and pale green skirt. The features and clothing of each person in the scene is outlined in charcoal gray. The artist signed the painting in the upper right corner, “HTLautrec,” with the H, T, and L interlocking to make a monogram.
National Gallery of Art · Painting
A Corner of the Moulin de la Galette
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Date
- 1892
- Medium
- oil on cardboard
- Dimensions
- overall: 100 x 89.2 cm (39 3/8 x 35 1/8 in.) framed: 132.4 x 122.6 cm (52 1/8 x 48 1/4 in.)
- Classification
- Painting
- Accession number
- 1963.10.67
- Credit line
- Chester Dale Collection
- Time span
- 1876 to 1900
- Department
- CF
Subjects and terms
- painted surface
- French
- Drinking
- taverns/cafes/inns
- genre
- Post-Impressionist
- Moulin de la Galette
Provenance
François Depeaux [1853-1920], Rouen; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, 31 May - 1 June 1906, no. 74, as _Intérieur de cabaret_); purchased by (Durand-Ruel)[1] probably for Otto Gerstenberg [1848-1935], Berlin; by inheritance to his daughter, Margarethe Scharf; sold 1950 to (Carstairs Gallery, New York);[2] sold 20 March 1950 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[3] bequest 1963 to NGA. [1] Annotated sales catalogue, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files). [2] Gerstenberg's great-granddaughter, Julietta Scharf, kindly shared information about her family's ownership of the painting in e-mails of 20 October and 5 November 2009 (in NGA curatorial files). Documentation from her grandmother, Margarethe Scharf, indicates that Otto Gerstenberg acquired the painting at the 1906 sale, and that Margarethe inherited the painting on her father's death. After Margarethe lent the painting to an exhibition at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen in 1936, the director of that museum offered to store it for her during World War II. After the war, Margarethe asked the director to arrange for it to be sold. See also Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Julietta Scharf, "Die Sammlung Otto Gerstenberg in Berlin," in _Die Moderne und ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in Deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik_, Andrea Pophanken and Felix Billeter, eds., Berlin, 2001: 183. Incorrectly, M.G. Dortu, _Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre_, 6 vols., New York, 1971: 2:262, does not include Gerstenberg in his provenance for the painting. [3] See bill of sale in NGA Gallery Archives, Chester and Maud Dale papers, Artist & Dealer FIles, Box 1, folder 19 (copy in NGA curatorial files).
Inscription
upper right: HTLautrec (HTL in ligature)
NGA object ID 46542. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.