Toulouse-Lautrec:
Caudieux
Click on the poster for a larger reproduction

HERE the comedian Caudieux prances past the prompter's box to make his entrance on stage at the Casino de Paris (or Petit Casino). The casino was a music hall on the rue de Clichy that offered dancing when the shows were over.

With wonderfully affected theatricality - arms held out, little legs moving like scissors beneath his paunch, lips pursed, hair oiled, in full stage makeup and evening regalia, with tails flying - he embodies the verve and decadence of the cabaret stage. The poster composition is typical of Lautrec's irreverence for western realism. He sets the viewpoint of the figure from below and that of the stage floor from above - an eastern device (see Japonisme) that reinforces the flat, surface animation of the image and conveys both movement and setting.

Caudieux
1893; Desloge 86; W P7; D 346
Lithograph in four colors. 48 7/16 x 35 1/4 inches.
Text by the artist. Artist's signature and date, lower left.
Gift of the Baldwin M. Baldwin Foundation, 1987:30

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