Sale: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 6th June 1958, lot 232
Madame Madeleine Grillaert Dortu (purchased at the above sale)
Monsieur Meric
Private Collection, Paris
Madame Dortu, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2009

Copenhagen, Hôtel de Ville, Dessinateurs Internationaux, 1958, no. 5A

Achile Astre, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Nilsson, 1925, p. 102
Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901. Dessins, estampes, affiches, Paris, 1926, vol. I, p. 203
Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901. Dessins, estampes, affiches, Paris, 1927, vol. II, p. 211
Alfred Frankfurter, 'T-Lautrec, the artist' in Art news annual, 1951, illustrated p. 123
Jacques Lassaigne, Le goût de notre temps - Lautrec, Lausanne, 1953, p. 80
M.G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son œuvre. Catalogue raisonné, New York, 1971, vol. VI, no. 3773, illustrated p. 639

Executed on cream wove paper, laid down on a sheet of fine restorer's paper, taped with additional strips of restorer's paper along all four edges of the verso in such a way that the edges are floating in an inner window mount. There is a pinhole to the lower right corner and a few repaired tiny nicks and tears in places to the extreme edges. There are some tiny paper infills to the upper right corner, well away from the image. There are a few spots of minor foxing in places and some light handling marks to parts of the edges. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A fervent chronicler of fin-de-siècle popular culture and entertainment in all its guises, Toulouse Lautrec was especially fond of the circus. As Richard Thomson wrote: 'The circus was deeply ingrained in Toulouse-Lautrec's imagination. He knew the world of horses from his childhood. No doubt as a boy he had been taken to the circus. And in the early 1880s, while in his teens and taking his first steps as a painter under the informal tutelage of the deaf-mute painter René Princeteau, he became fascinated by the ring, often visiting the Cirque Fernando in Montmartre' (Richard Thomson, 'The Circus', in Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre (exhibition catalogue), Washington D.C., 2005, p. 237). Clowns in particular captured the imagination of the bohemian artist who relished their slapstick comedy and melancholy surrealism. Lautrec first began depicting clowns in the 1880s when he frequented the Cirque Fernando, then returned to the theme a decade later when his health was deteriorating, finding solace in recreating circus scenes from memory in a sketchbook as he lay in his sick bed in a sanatorium in Neuilly.
In this delightful pencil drawing from 1895, Lautrec depicts the legendary double-act Footitt and Chocolat, two clowns whose circus performance reached the height of its popularity in Paris in the final years of the nineteenth century, appearing at the Cirque Fernando (later known as the Cirque Medrano, after another famous clown), the Hippodrome du Champ de Mars, the Nouveau Cirque and the Folies-Bergère. British born Footitt (real name Tudor Hall), and Cuban native Chocolat (Rafael Padilla) achieved considerable fame with their Laurel and Hardy-esque act contrasting the authoritarian Footitt and the much-maligned Chocolat. One of their catchphrases even entered into common French parlance: “Je suis chocolat” came to mean “I’ve been fooled”. At the peak of their celebrity, the pair lent their names and faces to numerous advertisements, notably for La Hêve soap, such was their universal appeal.

Lautrec’s sketch deftly evokes the physical comedy of their routine, recreating their exaggerated, theatrical expressions and movements. As Thompson has pointed out, 'We might even argue that the circus, which demanded from the artist a style that echoed its own perpetual movement, vulgar colour, and wicked sense of fun, helped Lautrec formulate the very mobile and graphic handling that was the hallmark of his mature work' (ibid., p. 238).