Moulin Rouge, La Goulue

Moulin Rouge, La Goulue was Toulouse-Lautrec’s first commissioned poster, created to advertise the performance of dancer La Goulue and acrobat Valentin le Desossé at the iconic Montmartre dance hall. With thousands of copies pasted around Paris, the poster was an instant success, propelling Toulouse-Lautrec into the artistic limelight and attracting numerous commissions from other performers and cabaret owners. In this image, Toulouse-Lautreccaptured the exhilarating experience of being onstage, but he also designed a composition that traps La Goulue in her spectacle: between the bright yellow stage lights, the anonymous silhouetted crowd, and the provocatively posed Valentin.