In 1891, Toulouse-Lautrec won a competition organized by the director of the Moulin-Rouge, his favorite cabaret. His first 4-color poster brought him fame and shows the dancer La Goulue with her leg kicking high and Valentin le Désossé in the shadow. In it, he experimented with a "spitting" technique, made using a brush on the lithographic stone in order to create more varied colors.
His subsequent posters, Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret and The Divan Japonais confirmed his talent in spite of the hostility of the director of Bruant's cabaret, who was shocked by Toulouse-Lautrec's graphic audacity. Like The Divan Japonais, which brings together the dancer Jane Avril, the writer Edouard Dujardin and the singer Yvette Guilbert in a long, headless silhouette with black gloves, it is emblematic of the art of lithography: broad areas of flat color, simplified forms, contrast and luminosity, with pronounced outlines.
In front of the camera, the painter-engraver Bernard Rémusat creates an original lithographic print in hommage to Lautrec in his Parisian studio "A Fleur de Pierre." He's one of the last artists to still use the traditional artisanal qualities of the lithographic stone.
