With its low rents and vibrant nightlife scene, Montmartre became a hub for the avant-garde. Had he outlived his father, Lautrec would have inherited the title of Comte. Already a sickly child, at the age of 13 Lautrec fractured his right femur, and at 14, the left. The breaks did not heal properly, and his legs subsequently stopped growing. Often confined to his bed and unable to participate in typical aristocratic pastimes like hunting and horseback riding, Lautrec instead nurtured his passion for the arts.
The Comte and Comtesse de Toulouse-Lautrec were first cousins, sharing a grandmother. Other congenital conditions are recorded in the family, including three first cousins who suffered severe deformities of the extremities. A great gourmand, Lautrec loved to cook and host raucous dinner parties. Upon learning that Lautrec was using the family name to sign his art, his father partially disinherited him. His uncle, apparently equally displeased, cast several of his paintings onto a bonfire.
Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters for the newly opened cabaret. His instinctive grasp of celebrity and blurring of commercial and fine art prefigures the Pop Art movement, and the work of Andy Warhol in particular. Credited with inventing the Tremblement de Terre, an extraordinarily strong cocktail consisting of 3 parts absinthe and 3 parts cognac, Lautrec is said to have enjoyed the drink served in a wine goblet.
Like Degas and Manet, to whom his work is certainly indebted, Lautrec took inspiration from the Japanese aesthetic. His unconventional compositional angles and cropping, use of silhouette, emphasis on contour and flattening of space are all typical of ukiyo-e prints.
He found an affinity between his own condition and the moral penury of the prostitute. Perhaps in response to the physical and socio-emotional difficulties related to his condition, Lautrec turned to alcohol.
