Van Gogh in

Toulouse-Lautrec’s atelier

Vincent met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) while studying at Fernand Cormon’s studio, and the two men became friends. Toulouse-Lautrec’s studio was on the corner of Rue Tourlaque and Rue Calaincourt, near Vincent and Theo’s flat. Vincent often went to the weekly artists’ gatherings Toulouse-Lautrec held at his home. The artist Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938), Toulouse-Lautrec’s lover, recalled:

“I can recall Van Gogh coming to our weekly meetings at Lautrec. He arrived with a heavy canvas under his arm, put it in a corner, but a well-lit one, and waited for us to give him our attention. Nobody noticed him. He sat down opposite us, gauging the look in our eyes, barely taking part in the conversation. Then he would get fed up and leave with his latest work. But the following week he would come back and start his whole ritual all over again.”

Although little is known about the friendship between Vincent and Toulouse-Lautrec, they must have worked together intensively in the early months of 1887. When Vincent left Paris in February 1888, he probably wrote to Toulouse-Lautrec once from Arles, but as far as is known, Toulouse-Lautrec never replied, and there was no further correspondence. The friendship was by no means over, however. In July 1890, when Vincent was living in Auvers-sur-Oise and paid his brother a visit in Paris, Toulouse-Lautrec came to see him, and they had a good time together. After Vincent’s death, Toulouse-Lautrec wrote to Theo that Vincent had been a good friend of his.

In 1888, probably on Vincent’s advice, Theo acquired Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting Young Woman at a Table, ‘Poudre de Riz’. This piece is now kept in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.