Between 1891 and 1899, Toulouse-Lautrec released a total of thirty posters advertising Montmartrois people, places, publications, and performances. Aristide Bruant, May Belfort, and Jane Avril were only a few of the performers portrayed in his works. Toulouse-Lautrec also featured such personages as the comedian Caudieux, English singer May Milton, cyclist Jimmy Michael, actress Marthe Mellot, and even the emperor Napoleon in posters during his last decade. His talents for commercial and traditional art fuse in this thirty-work series that Daniele Devynck calls “street art” (Devynck 4). His lines are simple and strong; his images are less detailed but more daring. For Toulouse-Lautrec, not everything has to be pretty.
Two excellent examples of his advertising ability are Jane Avril au Jardin de Paris (1893) and Divan Japonais (1893). The solid planes of flat color highlight his skill for catching the eyes of the passerby. Bright oranges and yellows contrasted with sheer, solid black are difficult to ignore. The color draws the viewer into the image, at which point Toulouse-Lautrec’s comedic details firmly hook her attention. The bassist’s hairy knuckles and the suggestive shape of his instrument invite further perusal of the lithographed surface of Jardin de Paris, as do the questionable body language and smirking leer of the 
blond-bearded man in Divan Japonais. This activity interacts with the text by either pointing toward it or touching it directly. The combination and arrangement of artistic factors in each poster ensures that Toulouse-Lautrec’s message will be clearly conveyed; in a brief span of time, he manages to identify for his viewers the event, its participants, and its very nature.
Yet intricate detail, dynamic line, and impressive rendering of motion are also present in Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters. Works like L’Aube (1896) and La Troupe de Mlle. Eglantine (1896) reveal incredibly precise drawing and lithographing techniques. The clear dark lines that outline each woman’s skirt in Eglantine convey the dancers’ motions through the curving ruffles of their petticoats and the fluid creases in their dresses, while the musculature of horse and humans and the folding 
fabric do the same in L’Aube. Each poster contains only blue ink and the color of the paper, but the multiple methods of application and varying thicknesses of line create texture and movement within each scene. Here, what captures the viewer’s attention is not the vivacity of the images but rather the incredible artistry of their presentation.
Each of Toulouse-Lautrec’s thirty posters is worthy of note. The most impressive aspect of the series is that every work is different; its tone, color, method, and detail stand apart from the rest. This seemingly inexhaustible stream of commercial creativity helped Toulouse-Lautrec himself stand apart from the rest of Paris’ nineteenth-century poster artists.
IMAGES
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. Caudieux. 1893. The Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. Andre Sauret. Monte-Carlo, France: Andre Sauret, 1966. Plate IX.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. Jane Avril au Jardin de Paris. 1893. The Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. Andre Sauret. Monte-Carlo, France: Andre Sauret, 1966. Plate VIII.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. Divan Japonais. 1893. The Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. Andre Sauret. Monte-Carlo, France: Andre Sauret, 1966. Plate VII.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de. L’Aube. 1896. The Posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. Andre Sauret. Monte-Carlo, France: Andre Sauret, 1966. Plate XVII.