How to Read Paintings: At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec
Parisian nightlife gloriously captured
This scene shows a group of friends in the bar of the Moulin Rouge. The figures socialise against a backdrop of preening actresses and shimmering mirrors. As a regular visitor to one of the most famous cabaret establishments in Paris, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted this depiction of his favourite nighttime spot with a tender eye for both the familiar and the strange.
Let’s begin by exploring the composition because it helps us to see how the painting functions, how it draws the viewer in and makes us part of its world.
Let your gaze pass over the image and notice where it is drawn to. My guess it is pulled in the direction of the points of light, firstly to the startling blue-green face of the woman close-up on the right, then afterwards to the wedge of white table visible amid the small crowd in the centre. Then there is the orange bun of a woman’s hair in the very middle, the white-powdered face of the lady just above, and the V-shape area of skin left by the woman’s dress standing behind. These highlights make up a constellation of luminous points like stars in an otherwise dark sky, leading the eye and coaxing the viewer inwards into the fabric of the scene.
