Truffier et Moreno, dans Les Femmes Savantes 1893

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made this lithograph, "Truffier et Moreno, dans Les Femmes Savantes", capturing a scene from Molière’s play, “The Learned Ladies." Lautrec, living in fin-de-siècle Paris, was drawn to the city’s vibrant theatrical life. Here, we see the actor Truffier, embodying a character of intellectual pretension, while Moreno appears ethereal, almost an apparition. Lautrec’s choice to depict actors, rather than conventional portraits, speaks to his interest in performance and constructed identity. The original play satirized the affectations of intellectual women, but Lautrec's image complicates this narrative. The ghostly figure of Moreno challenges traditional representations of women, suggesting a presence that defies easy categorization. Lautrec, often an outsider due to his physical disabilities, might have found kinship with those who existed on the margins of society. He captures a sense of the fleeting nature of performance, emphasizing how identity itself can be a kind of stage.