Le crocodile, Menu

In November 1896 Lautrec visited Château de Blois with friends, where they discussed Marie de Medici, the 17th-century French queen who was exiled to Blois by her son Louis XIII before later making a daring night escape. This tale inspired Lautrec’s menu, in which his friends masquerade as Marie and her rescuer. A puzzling crocodile and a bespectacled ghostly apparition also appear, only heightening the scene’s mystery. In a rare act of self-portraiture, Lautrec observes from below.