At the Moulin Rouge

‘You may see me only as a drunken, vice-ridden gnome whose friends are just pimps and girls from the brothels. But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fibre of my being.’ John Leguizamo brought plenty of character to the role of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) – but not as much character as the real Toulouse-Lautrec brought to the razzle-dazzle venue in his At the Moulin Rouge (1892–95). Several figures make an indelible impression: the lady in violet preening in the wall mirror; the singer May Milton, her sculpted blue-lit face gazing at us wide-eyed from the foreground; and of course, Toulouse-Lautrec himself, accompanied by a distinctly taller gentleman in a top hat. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the painting is heading north-west to be the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where it will be accompanied by prints, posters and drawings – and several other works by Toulouse-Lautrec himself – that depict Parisian nightlife in the late 19th century (12 October–9 March 2025).

Find out more from the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s website.

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Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret (1893), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Minneapolis Institute of Art

Bust of Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender (1895), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Minneapolis Institute of Art

At the Moulin Rouge (1892–95), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Art Institute of Chicago