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Carmen Gaudin in the Artist's Studio
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901)
1888
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
55.9 x 46.7 cm (22 x 18 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John T. Spaulding
Accession Number48.605
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Toulouse-Lautrec met red-haired Carmen Gaudin in the Montmartre district of Paris in 1884, and she soon became his favorite model. Here, Gaudin wears the white blouse of a laundress and sits before a studio wall covered with angular canvases. Work-roughened fingers laced in her lap, she stares out at the viewer with a withdrawn, even sullen, expression. The life of a professional model was difficult and fraught with social stigma, her employment dependent on whether her look fit an artist’s vision. When Gaudin changed her locks from red to brown, Toulouse-Lautrec no longer hired her.
InscriptionsLower right: HTLautrec (H, T and L in monogram)
ProvenanceKarjensky, Paris. Henri-Jean Laroche (b. 1866 - d. 1935), Paris [see note 1]. By 1925, Paul Rosenberg and Co., New York; January 9, 1926, sold by Rosenberg to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance was provided by Rosenberg at the time of the painting's sale to Spaulding.
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance was provided by Rosenberg at the time of the painting's sale to Spaulding.