Friends, we have done it! After two months in the south of France exploring artists via their national museums and homes, we have reached the final one, at least for this trip. (You can find links to articles about Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-August Renoir, and Marc Chagall by clicking on their names.) Welcome to the last installment, that of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec!

His story is a bit different than that of the others. He was born wealthy, but was attracted to life – and people – on the margins of society. He battled health concerns all of his life, some of which were out of his control and some directly self-inflicted. He created more than 6,000 known paintings and drawings – and helped to launch the art poster movement – but died at 36 after a career that was under 20 years. And his addition in pop culture, specifically the film (and subsequent stage musical) Moulin Rouge makes him one of the more well known artists whose paintings few can seem to identify with ease.

With the volume of works produced, especially his “pop culture” posters, studies of Toulouse-Lautrec art can happen at major art museums all over the world, and especially here in France. But for a more intimate view of the man and his life to go with the artworks, our story takes us to Albi, a city of about 50,000 less than an hour from Toulouse.

Albi is best known for two things: Toulouse-Lautrec (and the museum that bears his name) and the city’s Cathedral of Saint Cecilia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that claims to be the largest brick building in the world. It was built from 1282 to 1480 as the seat of the bishops of Albi, whose palace the museum sits within.

The interior of the cathedral is incredible. While most similar brick cathedrals in this portion of France once contained fully painted walls and ceilings, Albi’s still does. These remarkable frescoes were completed from the 15th to 18th centuries, and make the building truly one-of-a-kind.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born here in Albi in 1864, the son of Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec. (A small plaque marks the house in which he was born, right in the center of Albi.) A start in an aristocratic family gave young Henri a lot of advantages in his early life. He was well educated, and was permitted to pursue his passion for drawing, being allowed to study art full time in Paris from his late teens. Being born into this family also gave him some challenges. His parents were first cousins (something this family apparently did routinely), and it is thought that some of the health issues that would plague his life were the result of that union.

At the age of 13, Henri fractured his right femur, and he broke the left femur the following year. Neither would heal properly, most likely the result of a condition now unfortunately sometimes called Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome, and his legs stopped growing as a result. So he ended up being five feet tall (even) with an adult-sized torso and child-sized legs.

Note: contrary to popular belief and characterization, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was not a little person, and he did not suffer from dwarfism. His genetic health issues simply prevented proper healing in his legs – and may have contributed to his being more likely to break them to begin with – which led to stunted growth in his lower body.

So Henri headed to Paris to study art in 1882, using his family connections (both sides despite his parents’ divorce prior) to gain access to the most important studios, where he would gain exposure doing portraits, helping to balance out the landscape and animal scenes he did as a child. But he seemed not to like posed shots, and wanted more of “real” life. His friends had purchased the services of a prostitute for him, and something in the experience spoke to Toulouse-Lautrec, who began to paint scenes of prostitutes in their daily lives in the Montmartre neighborhood, where he would spend most of the remainder of his life. (Click here to read about Montmartre.)

His connections and obvious talents, not to mention his rather unique subject matter, made Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec a quick name for himself. By the late 1880s, he was taking part in salons with the likes of Van Gogh and Suzanne Valadon, the latter who it is believed was in a romantic relationship with Henri for a time.

In 1889, the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened, and Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to do a series of posters advertising the new venue. This would lead to what is probably his most famous genre: posters of nightclubs and cabarets, featuring specific singers and dancers, plus the sensationalizing of the can-can.

The 1890s saw Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec both achieve the pinnacle of fame professionally, and reach his lowest point personally. He was an alcoholic – said to be a product of a lifetime of bullying as a result of his stature – and his “signature” drink of choice was half absinthe and half cognac in a large wine goblet. Continuing painting at a frantic pace despite failing health (he also had syphilis although reports of his not actually engaging with prostitutes are common), he had a breakdown in 1899, and was committed to a sanatorium.

And he continued to paint, until a 1901 series of strokes would partially paralyze him and then lead to his death a few months later. It is a sad and early end to a life.

After his death, his family searched for an appropriate place to donate much of their collection, and a fairly new museum in Albi itself became the beneficiary in 1922. Said to hold more than a thousand of his works (easily the largest collection in existence), the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec sits a mere five minutes’ talk from the artist’s childhood home, in the palace that once was home to the bishops of Albi.

While parts of the museum are dedicated to the history of the building (it is lovely, dating to the thirteenth century, being part palace and part fortress, as the Catholic Church was engaged in a war with a sect based in the region called the Cathars) and to both contemporaries of Toulouse-Lautrec and visiting exhibitions, the majority of the collection traces Henri’s life and work.

The exhibits start with pastoral scenes from his life on his family’s estates, featuring his love of nature and horses, before moving into more familiar subject matter.

The largest portion of the museum houses paintings Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec produced during the 1880s and early 1890s in Paris. The most fascinating part is his evolution from more detailed images to those made up of more basic lines.

By the mid 1890s, it seems those “less developed” pieces were his preference.

And of course, the museum holds the originals of many of his famous posters. What is on display now is mainly reproductions, as the originals are so thin and sensitive to light that they cannot be in the public for long.

The museum also contains two very late paintings of note: an 1899 self portrait done while at the sanatorium, and his final work from 1901, An Examination at the Faculty of Medicine. (He would have been partially paralyzed and wheelchair bound at that point.)

It is a stunning collection in a beautiful place of a rather unfortunate man who was dealt some pretty rough cards by life.

And with that, our 2026 exploration of some of the most influential and important artists with extensive ties to southern France comes to an end. It has been a fun ride for me, learning about all of these men, appreciating their lives and work, and even finding some new perspectives on not only their art, but that of some of their peers. Whether you are an art fan, or just someone who likes elegant historical characters, I hope you’ve enjoyed these stories with me!

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