Toulouse-Lautrec:
Théâtre Antoine: La Gitane de Richepin
Click on the poster for a larger reproduction

THIS is an advertisement for Jean Richepin's drama La Gitane. The story follows the fatal attraction of various men to the heartless Spanish gypsy Rita. After her jealous husband and suitors kill each other off, she runs away with her younger brother-in-law.

The lead in the Théâtre Antoine's production was played by Marthe Mellot, an actress and singer who was well known for her roles as a seductive femme fatale. She was the wife of Alfred Natanson, one of the brothers who published La Revue blanche. Lautrec has given a choreographic S-shape to the figure's swaggering posture, her face contorted in grotesque hilarity. She gives a pitiless jeer over her shoulder at one of her frantic lovers scrambling after a rival over the hilly Granada scenery.

This was Lautrec's last poster, and is now extremely rare.

Théâtre Antoine: La Gitane de Richepin
1899; Desloge 109; W P30; D 368
Lithograph in six colors. 35 3/8 x 24 5/8 inches.
Artist's monogram lower right. Text designed by the artist.
Gift of the Baldwin M. Baldwin Foundation, 1987:107

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