Lithograph ‘Elles’ by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

This French Art Nouveau lithograph, “Elles” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, heavily focuses on women for the portfolio of “Elles,” one of Lautrec’s greatest achievements in lithography. This series of carefully-observed brothel scenes thwarts the expectation of the titillating or the tawdry, instead presenting quiet moments of mundane intimacy between a young couple, possibly the Moulin Rouge female “clown” Cha-U-Kao and her partner Gabrielle, who both appear in other works by Lautrec.