Portrait de André Rivoire 1901

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured André Rivoire with bold brushstrokes, immortalizing the man around the turn of the century in Paris. Lautrec, an artist who lived on the fringes of Parisian society, often turned his gaze to the performers and personalities of Montmartre. While Lautrec found himself among the outcasts, Rivoire occupied a different sphere. As a man of letters, Rivoire inhabited a world of literary salons and bourgeois respectability. Here, Lautrec seems to be asking us to consider the nature of identity and representation. The thick, almost violent application of paint hints at a tension between the sitter's public persona and a more elusive interiority. Is Lautrec revealing something about Rivoire, or perhaps about the very act of portraiture? The portrait remains a captivating study of an individual, and a subtle commentary on the complexities of social identity in Belle Époque Paris.