A series of posters commissioned by Montmartre singer and cabaret owner Aristide Bruant - recognizable by his omnipresent red scarf - and released in 1892 and 1893 present this same association with a greater degree of subtlety; the scarlet muffler Toulouse-Lautrec wraps around the entertainer’s neck denotes his connections to 
Montmartre’s sexual undercurrents. Bruant’s cabaret, Le Mirliton, sat squarely in the Montmartre corner of la ceinture rouge; Bruant used the locale to attract aristocrats desirous of encountering the neighborhood’s debauched denizens. (Frey 185). He encouraged this rough reputation by hanging portraits of prostitutes on his walls and penning erotic songs about la ceinture rouge, which he sang nightly in his cabaret and published in his Le Mirliton songbooks. The posters Toulouse-Lautrec created to advertise Bruant’s performances and publications all contain the color red. The first two, Ambassedeurs (1892) and Eldorado (1892), are simply mirror images of one another: Toulouse-Lautrec used the same illustration to advertise two different performances. Bruant’s coarse personality and coarser lyrics were exceedingly popular, and Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters fueled his popularity by presenting a strong, simple image with an eye-catching, bright-red center that contrasted brilliantly with the singer’s black cloak. Richard Heller explains that the scarlet scarf held a powerful appeal for many in its subtle promise of “the dance hall’s varied entertainments and services - drinking and dancing, raucous music, sex for sale - available in a setting of anonymity and overt official acquiescence” (Heller 32). Bruant’s nightclub was an acknowledged means to sexual activity in which the management simply looked the other way. Along the same lines, Aristide Bruant, dans son cabaret (1893) displays the crimson muffler once again glowing near the center of the poster; its drape accentuates Bruant’s mischievous pose. The bright color pulls the viewer’s eye toward his face, which wears a playfully sarcastic and knowing expression. Bruant appears to be turning his back on the risqué goings-on of his establishment, but his roguish expression conveys that he knows exactly what is taking place. Furthermore, the ever-present scarlet muffler alerts the public to who is actually orchestrating it all. Toulouse-Lautrec identifies the overt sexuality of Bruant’s music and his tacit encouragement of sexual behaviors through the constant presence of his red scarf, thus enlisting an immoral ally in his fight for self-justification.
This emphasis on another artist’s sexual activity is equally visible in the incriminating presence of red in Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1895 poster May Belfort. The work was commissioned by the young Irish performer for her show at the Petit Casino that year. Her act was an odd one; she dressed up like a little girl in flouncy dresses and baby bonnets and sang in English with a feigned lisp. Her songs had simple lyrics that were packed with double entendres (one of her more popular songs ran, “I’ve got a little cat…I’m very fond of that” [qtd in Devynck 68]), and she often held a black kitten in her arms for the most provocative numbers (Atterberry 74). Her act was not particularly well-received; one critic stated that she looked like a frog. Toulouse-Lautrec, however, was rather taken with her (Devnyck 68). He highlights the sexual nature of her performances with the presence of red; though she commonly wore pastel-colored dresses, he portrays her here in the same crimson color Helene wears in Reine de Joie. May Belfort was not a prostitute; she had no associations with the Moulin Rouge or Le Mirliton, the primary sex-peddling Montmartre cabarets. Hence, the red here must certainly describe her overt sexuality. Her act was quite charged, as evidenced by her provocative lyrics and her stage character, described by Gisele Atterberry as a “naughty little English girl” (Atterberry 74). Her bright red dress is what catches the viewer’s eye; placed squarely in the center of the poster, the flat plane of crimson links her directly to la ceinture rouge and its questionable goings-on. The scarlet gown makes her artistic sexuality impossible to ignore, and thus Toulouse-Lautrec implicates her alongside him in the erotic underworld of Montmartre’s artists.
IMAGES
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. Aristide Bruant - Ambassadeurs. 1892. The Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. Andre Sauret. Monte-Carlo, France: Andre Sauret, 1966. Plate IV.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. May Belfort. 1895. The Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. Andre Sauret. Monte-Carlo, France: Andre Sauret, 1966. Plate XII.