Frontispiece – Yvette Guilbert before the Prompter’s Box

Description

Yvette Guilbert appears high at the right of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s frontispiece, with the prompter’s box lower at the left. Sparse dark marks and an inscription leave much of the pale field open. The performer and practical stage detail become the image’s principal presences, making a modest arrangement suggest the wider occasion of a public performance.

Made in 1898, the lithograph is printed on laid paper. As a frontispiece, the image introduces a larger work while retaining its own concentrated subject. Toulouse-Lautrec gives the figure’s performance a form that can be considered beyond its passing moment. The stage detail connects her presence to the physical world of entertainment, making the encounter specific without requiring a complete account of the songs or spectators associated with it.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec collection.