Yvette Guilbert 1894

This is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's drawing of Yvette Guilbert. Toulouse-Lautrec created this drawing of the famous cabaret singer to be printed in an edition of songs that Guilbert sang. Yvette Guilbert was a celebrated performer in the cabarets of fin-de-siècle Paris, known for her distinctive style and provocative songs. Toulouse-Lautrec's work provides a glimpse into the vibrant, often subversive, culture of Montmartre. His artistic vision captured the essence of Parisian nightlife and its personalities. Note how her long gloves and slender frame emphasize the artificiality of performance, but also the constructed nature of femininity itself. As Guilbert put it, she was "a caricature of a woman," playing with and exaggerating gender expectations on stage. Toulouse-Lautrec’s image captures Guilbert’s knowing engagement with her audience, as well as the sometimes difficult position of women in the entertainment industry. His work invites us to consider the complex interplay of identity, performance, and spectatorship at play in the cabarets of the time, and perhaps our own time as well.