Moulin de la Galette
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 88.5 × 101.3 cm (35 7/8 × 39 5/8 in.); Framed: 109.3 × 123.2 × 12.1 cm (43 × 48 1/2 × 4 3/4 in.)
- Genre
- oil on canvas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)paintingnineteenth centuryPost-Impressionism19th centurypaintChicago World's FairscanvasCentury of Progressoil on canvasfrenchmenLeisureTableoil paint (paint)painting (image making)painting techniquesnightwomenworld's fairsdancersoil paintingeuropean paintingnightlifedancenight scenesurban life
About
With this painting of the dance hall known as the Moulin de la Galette, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec established his reputation as the chronicler of the Montmartre district’s famed nightlife. A wooden barrier bisects the composition, dividing the frenzied action of the dance floor in the background from the stillness of the women waiting in the foreground. Toulouse-Lautrec used turpentine to thin his paint and applied it in loose washes, a technique known as peinture à l’essence. The result is a sketchy style that conveys both the immediacy of the artist’s observations and the tawdry atmosphere of his subject.
