Description:Regarded as one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s most powerful posters, May Milton captures a sense of spontaneity and grace in the artist’s bold use of color and sinuous lines. Of this work Gotz Adriani states, “This five-colour design…was printed by Ancourt, Paris, for the dancer’s tour of the United States, and it is one of Lautrec’s boldest poster compositions. The motif was carefully worked out in a drawing in coloured crayon (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven) …May Milton was an English dancer with a pale, serious face and strong chin who appeared at the Moulin Rouge…wearing a white debutante’s dress with puff sleeves. Mindful of her liaison with May Belfort, Lautrec printed the posters for the two women (see No. 126) in complementary colours: red and green in one case, and blue and yellow in the other. The May Milton poster must still have been hanging in Picasso’s studio on the Boulevard de Clichy in 1901, for in his Interior with Bather (Philipps Memorial Gallery, Washington) , it adorns the wall of the studio in the background” (Adriani, 188) .
Created in 1895, this work is a state B (of C) impression printed by Ancourt, Paris and commissioned by May Milton. Featuring Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s monogram stamp (Lugt 1338) in black ink in the lower left with added date of ‘95.’ The work is printed in five colors with lettering designed by the artist.
Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
It is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work) :
1) Adhémar, Jean. Toulouse-Lautrec: His Complete Lithographs and Drypoints, New York, 1951. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 149.
2) Adriani, Götz. Toulouse Lautrec: The Complete Graphic Works A Catalogue Raisonne, London, 1988. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 134 on pgs. 188-9.
3) Daix, Pierre & Georges Boudaille. Picasso: The Blue and Rose Periods, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1900 – 1906, New York Graphic Society Ltd.: Greenwich, 1967. “May Milton” featured in the painting, “The Blue Room” listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. VI. 15 on pg. 197.
4) Delteil Loys. H. de Toulouse-Lautrec, seconde partie, Paris, 1920. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 356.
5) Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Toulouse-Lautrec & His Contemporaries: Posters of the Belle Epoque from the Wagner Collection, Los Angeles, 1985. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 18.
6) Lugt, Frits. Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes, Amsterdam, 1921. Signature stamp listed and illustrated as cat. no. 1338 on pg. 240.
7) National Museum, Stockholm. Toulouse-Lautrec, Ntionalmusei utställningskatalog nr. 317. Listed as catalogue raisonné no. 220 on pg. 78.
8) Wittrock, Wolfgang. Toulouse-Lautrec The Complete Prints, Vol. II, New York, 1985. Listed and illustrated on pgs. 788-9 as catalogue raisonné no. P17.
About the Framing:
Conservation framed with museum-quality archival materials, this work is set in a beautiful, Spanish-style gold and black moulding that gracefully complements this marvelous work. Its intricately carved detailing serves to accent Toulouse-Lautrec’s ornate composition and even echoes the nature of his stroke and lines that outline the expressive movement of May Milton herself. Completed with white, linen-wrapped mats and a matching gold inner fillet, this work is set behind an archival Plexiglas® cover.
