TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

An artist's biography, good reading, with a well-filled background of Montmartre cafès and their owners and entertainers, the theatre, the circus, whorehouses and so on. The man himself is interesting. The sources of his artistic material equally so. He loved sports and his eccentric father wanted him to attain physical perfection, but he was handicapped in his teens by having his legs badly broken. So he turned to art, studying, worshipping Degas and Japanese prints, seeking Paris night life for his subjects, and producing illustrations and poster designs that equalled the fame of his lithographs. An art book as well as excellent biography.