The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 21, 2025
Elles: Woman In a Corset
1896
(French, 1864–1901)
Gift of Ralph King 1925.1204.10
Catalogue raisonné: Wittrock Vol.I.164 ; Delteil 188
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
This print belongs to a portfolio published by the dealer Gustave Pellet, who created a special luxury paper that featured a watermark of his initials.Description
Like Cassatt, Toulouse-Lautrec also made a series of color prints depicting the daily lives of women, but instead of portraying bourgeois wives and mothers, his subjects were prostitutes. His series of twelve lithographs entitled Elles boldly confronted the reality of late 19th-century Parisian brothels on the rue de Moulins and the rue de Richelieu, in which rich men's pursuit of pleasure with the daughters of the poor was legal and accepted. Although not portraits of classic beauty, his depictions of Parisian prostitutes embrace the poignancy of human experience. Here, a prostitute unhooks her corset in the presence of a client, her face sympathetically averted from the viewer's gaze.- Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).CMA 1996: Sets and Series: Five Centuries of Master Prints, February 20-May 5, 1996, no cat.Prints by Toulouse-Lautrec and Bonnard. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 3, 1985-March 2, 1986).
- {{cite web|title=Elles: Woman In a Corset|url=false|author=Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec|year=1896|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1925.1204.10