Style Imitating Art | “Miss May Belfort” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was Marsha’s turn to choose the artwork. Although she was looking for a piece that was not Impressionist, she was drawn to the colors and textures of this Post-Impressionist work by French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Marsha was also intrigued by the slightly odd expression on Miss May Belfort‘s face. I tried to make a similar weird face in my “posed” photo and it is just ridiculous.

The Artwork

“Miss May Belfort” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

About the Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, the first of two sons of aristocratic parents, the Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa and his wife Adèle Zoë Tapié de Celeyran, was born on November 24, 1864, at the Château du Bosc, Camjac, Aveyron, in the south of France. His younger brother was born in 1867 but died the next year. Both sons enjoyed the noble title of Comte as a courtesy. However, if Henri had outlived his father, he would have inherited the full noble title of Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.

After Henri’s brother died, his parents separated and he was raised by a nanny for a few years. At the age of 8, he moved to Paris to live with his mother. While in Paris, Henri was drawing sketches and caricatures in his workbooks and began receiving his first informal art lessons from his father’s friend, French animal painter René Princeteau. Some of Henri’s earliest paintings include horses which were a speciality of Princeteau’s.

In 1875, when Henri was 11 years old, his mother grew increasingly worried about his health and returned to Albi, France, where he could take thermal baths and have access to better medical attention to address his lack of growth and development. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had congenital health conditions which have been attributed to a family history of inbreeding. Henri’s parents were first cousins, their mothers were sisters.

During his early teen years, Henri fractured both of his femurs on different occasions and neither break healed properly. Modern physicians believe that Henri had pycnodysostosis (sometimes called Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome) which prevented his legs from growing once he reached 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m). He developed an adult sized torso but his legs remained child sized.

Henri continued to draw and paint while Princeteau became more and more impressed with the young artist’s skills. Eventually, Princeteau convinced 18 year old Henri’s parents to allow him to return to Paris in 1882 to study under French painter and art professor Léon Bonnat. Studying with Bonnat put Henri right in the heart of Montmartre, a Parisian community of artists, writers, and philosophers. Henri was so drawn to Montmartre’s bohemian lifestyle that he remained there for the rest of his life, rarely leaving the area over the next two decades.

During his first five years in Paris, Henri established a close group of lifelong friends which included French Post-Impressionist painter Émile Bernard and Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Henri was a young adult by this point so his friends decided to sponsor his first encounter with a prostitute.

This encounter led to a lifelong fascination with prostitutes and the “urban underclass” which Henri began incorporating into the subject matter of his paintings. Prostitutes inspired him so much that Henri created approximately 100 drawings and 50 paintings of the women he met in brothels. Henri also felt comfortable among the urban underclass due to his physical appearance and found that he was accepted among this group. However, the welcoming environment also provided a breeding ground for Henri’s worsening alcoholism. He became so addicted to alcohol that he hollowed out his walking cane and filled it with booze to ensure that he always had some on hand.

By February 1899, Henri’s alcoholism had progressed to the point of exhaustion. After he collapsed from exhaustion, his family admitted him to a sanatorium for three months. During his stay at the sanatorium, Henri drew 39 circus portraits. He returned to Paris after his release but his mental and physical health began to rapidly decline due to his alcoholism and syphilis. Complications resulting from those two illnesses would eventually end Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s life. He died at his mother’s estate on September 9, 1901, at the age of 36.

In his short life, Henri was a prolific artist creating 737 canvas paintings, 275 watercolors, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings and sketches, a few pieces of ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works that likely exceeds 80. Oh, and he also “wrote” a cookbook, L’Art de la Cuisine. Actually, his friend Maurice Joyant published a collection of Henri’s personal recipes after his death. The English translation, The Art of Cuisine, was published in 1966 and I really want it. But it’s a bit on the pricey side!

About the Art: “Miss May Belfort”

“Miss May Belfort” is an 1895 oil on millboard portrait of Irish singer, actress, and comedienne May Belfort. The millboard is supported by cardboard and measures 24 5/8 x 19 in (62.5 x 48.2 cm) unframed. The framed measurements are 33 7/8 x 28 1/8 x 3 1/2 in (86 x 71.5 x 8.9 cm). The painting’s earliest provenance is unclear but it was bequeathed by Leonard C. Hanna Jr. to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1958 where it still resides but is currently not on view.

Taking much of his inspiration from café concerts and other popular Parisian places of entertainment that featured singers and other performers, Henri depicted the world famous May Belfort in many of his works. The artist discovered Miss Belfort during an 1895 visit to the popular nightclub Les Décadents. She soon became one of Henri’s favorite models. In this painting, the singer is portrayed wearing her signature ruffled dress and bonnet. This is one of only a few portraits of May Belfort where she is not holding her black cat. I should have held my black for a photo or two but I didn’t think of it!

Resources/References:

• Wikipedia: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Wikipedia: May Belfort
• WikiArt: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• The Cleveland Museum of Art: May Belfort

About My Outfit

Miss May Belfort’s peachy colored gown was the inspiration for my outfit. Peach is not a color that I wear often so my wardrobe is lacking in this shade, particularly in cold weather clothing. However, I did pick up this peachy floral kimono robe during a September thrifting adventure. Before I ever got the chance to wear it, the weather turned too cold for such a summery piece. Despite it being the “wrong” season, I was excited for the opportunity to style a warm weather kimono robe for the colder seasons. I have so many beautiful lightweight robes in my closet that need to be shown off all year long. Creative layers is just the way to do it!

So I built my layers around the brown and green colors that form the background of the painting. My olive green knit turtleneck dress was the perfect fitted piece to layer underneath the robe. It keeps me warm without adding too much bulkiness. I wore tan tights and tall boots in taupe which just barely peeked out when my robe would open. I added a minty green neckerchief as a hat band to my olive green floppy hat and then I adorned it with my cameo brooch in a similar color palette. My other jewelry includes green stone hoop earrings, my colorful thrifted seed bead necklace, and my green tree of life necklace. I topped it all off with one final layer of warmth, my olive green coat with the furry collar, and switched to my green Teddy Blake bag for the winter.

I ended up wearing this outfit to go on a morning grocery shopping date with my husband. We took these photos, did the grocery shopping at the commissary, ordered sushi, and then sat in the car overlooking a pond while we enjoyed our secret lunch without children. Thankfully, my children don’t read my blog so they will never know how we “cheated them” out of a sushi lunch. Hahaha.

How do you think I did with this style challenge? Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have interpreted this painting into outfits.

If you want to play along and create your own outfit inspired by “Miss May Belfort”, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

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