004. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: La Blanchisseuse

My copy of La Blanchisseuse

Toulouse-Lautrec painted La Blanchisseuse in 1886. The original was oil on canvas measuring 93cm by 75cm. It is currently in a private collection.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: La Blanchisseuse (sepia scan not original colours)

Where to begin; Toulouse-Lautrec work is neither pictures nor stories. It’s a glimpse into a world - his world.  The model posing as a poor young washerwoman is Carmen Gaudin who featured in many of his work most famously At Montrouge ( Rosa la Rouge).

As the picture is in a private collection, finding a good copy to copy from has been a bit of a struggle.  Especially the colours. P.S.A. For the love of God. If you take a picture of any artwork and post it on social media please do not apply a filter to it.

The attraction to painting this was very much in the pose, both from a figurative challenge and also from a body language point (I am sure there is a better word I can use here).

I suck at painting and drawing hands, and this was no exception. I was also painting this on a 24cm by 18cm canvas which didn’t give us much room. From attempt after attempt to get the hand right, the paint was building up quite thickly.

Struggling to paint the hands

What I found interesting was I was able to fix it somewhat by addressing the lighting in the picture. For example in the picture below, the table was a lot darker and everything is looking a bit flat.

Where I lightened the table in the final, this has added depth and whilst by no means perfect, I am sure you can agree the hand looks a lot better. I believe this is down to the window; Our brains knows that is the light source and the more information (or bits of the painting we get right) to that source, the better the result.

I mentioned in my post on Franz Marc, Liegender hund in schee about how colour can lift the shape, this painting has bought to our attention the importance of light.

A couple on notes on colour to end with;

Firstly in terms of skin in general, I found (not just in this piece but also from some studies I have done). Burnt Umber is darn useful to have in the paintbox for working on shadows across skin.

Secondly, the purple for the table I really like ( I have used it on later paintings). It is Deep Cadmium Red and Cobalt Blue with a bit of mixing white.