Albert (René) Grenier (1858–1925)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

1887 · Oil on wood · European Paintings

Grenier and Lautrec were fellow students in the Paris atelier of academic history painter Fernand Cormon during the 1880s and became fast friends: Lautrec even lived briefly with Grenier and his wife, Lili, an actress and model, and made several portrayals of the couple. An inscription on the verso of this portrait indicates that it was painted in Lautrec’s Montmartre studio in the rue Caulaincourt in 1887. He employed thin, watercolor-like washes of pigment, laid over a fine pencil underdrawing, to produce a sensitive character study of his comrade.

Artist

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Date

1887

Medium

Oil on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Bequest of Mary Cushing Fosburgh, 1978