Toulouse-Lautrec’s first lesbian works were sketched in the most private place - the bedroom (indicating his belief that homosexuality should be confined to secluded settings) - 
and are the most sensual (indicating his obsession with the scandalous matter). During the morning and afternoon in the brothels the women were together, alone and at peace. Toulouse-Lautrec reflects this relaxed ambience with the reclining embrace of the women in his sketches. In these earlier drawings, this embrace is more visible. The most provocative is The Kiss (1892) in which two women are captured on the canvas kissing other on a bed. One woman is hovering over her partner while her arm is tucked underneath the latter’s back, which is suggestive of a tender, supportive embrace. The woman below her has her arm wrapped around the other’s neck, drawing the woman above closer to her for support. They are holding each other very tightly. According to Julia Fey, Lautrec was best at portraying body language. (Frey “Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec”) The women do not have to tell about their love; it is powerfully expressed by the natural embrace of their arms. The non-coerced tightness reflects Toulouse-Lautrec’s attempt in becoming closer with the lesbians in order to better understand their situation and motives.
Toulouse-Lautrec soon reverses this attraction by gradually separating the lovers, reflecting his developing homophobia, as we remain in the bedroom for the painting In Bed (1892), which places two lesbians in bed next to each other. 
They are in an unperturbed and restful position. One has both of her arms crossed above her head while the other has her head cradled in her own arm. Both women’s arms are touching each other, but slightly. The arm of the woman on the right is supporting the arm of the woman on the left. The scene appears quite natural because the pose is relaxing, nurturing, and innocently intimate. However, the embrace is not as strong as it was in The Kiss. The couple is not hugging and, for the most part, the women are keeping their arms to themselves. According to Sweetman, “The women are lying together…clearly absorbed in each other, yet with no sign of closer physical contact.” (Sweetman 362) Toulouse-Lautrec purposefully separates them even though he knows that they were usually actively embracive, such as in The Kiss. We are now beginning to see some ambivalence in Toulouse-Lautrec’s judgments about the openness of the embrace. Strangely, the determined artist, who found the relationship between the women an intriguing affair by saying, “This is better than anything else. There is the very epitome of sensual delight,” now appears to be questioning his interest. (Denvir 154) Why was he drawing the women away from each other? What did he fear? We can best theorize that he was having second thoughts about this scandalous display of affection. There was something about these relationships that he disapproved. He probably still retained his conservative ideals that stemmed from his aristocratic upbringing, therefore being skeptical about the liberal ideals of lesbianism.
It may sound reasonable to say that Toulouse-Lautrec’s movement towards less intimate lesbian works was due to his wariness of the critics’ response, but this is not the case. By the 1890s Toulouse-Lautrec had been popularly accepted by the Montmartre community due to his eccentric personality and artistic innovation. According to Sweetman, Toulouse-Lautrec was “accepted by the avant-garde yet also by a wider public who knew his work was an integral part of the most exciting places of amusement in the city.” (Sweetman 207) In 1893, after he had produced The Kiss and In Bed, he participated in eight exhibitions consisting of paintings and lithographs of Montmartre’s public view on nightlife with which everyone was familiar. Sweetman adds that “all were of subjects that encouraged the idea that he was the artist of Parisian showbusiness, the Master of the Moulin Rouge, the portraitist of the stars rather than someone concerned with deeper social issues” such as lesbianism. (Sweetman 207) The fact that none of the works in his exhibition were about the more sensitive issues such as homosexuality hints at the possibility of homophobia. He still was not feeling strongly or comfortable with this issue. A conflict between his bohemian desires to explore the underbellies of society and his traditional platform was constantly being battled out in his conscience. He was obsessed with these lesbians and later chose to portray them individually, but did not prefer them together, finding the intimacy too repulsive for his moral standards. He often commented about the lesbians; for example, he said, “These women are alive!” (qtd Néret 134) The quote seems derogatory, as if he is saying the women are alive in a monstrous, animal-like manner. Also, according to Julia Frey, “It was not uncommon for him to refer in conversation to the women as abstract parts: disparate limbs, organs.” (Frey 380) Toulouse-Lautrec nearly picks apart these lesbians part by part, hardly demonstrating any respect that many critics thought he had for these women. He may have likely viewed them as non-human beings and saw their passion for each other as just another humorous and curious spectacle. In reality, he did not know how to properly respond to this behavior and decided to slowly withdraw from these private brothel investigations due to his latent homophobia.