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Full set of ten (original printing 1896) estimated at US $ 500,000-700,000, Christies, N.Y. Lot 22, Oct. 2001 (edition of 100 only, very rare)

"Shown is Juliette Baron carrying the breakfast tray and her daughter Paulette, Mademoiselle Popo, both of whom worked in the brothel in the Rue des Moulins…a confrontation of premature vice and age, now fit only for servitude" (Adriani, p.222)

Jane Avril (1868-1943)

"They were his friends as well as his models. He in turn had an uplifting effect on them. In his presence they were just women, and he treated them as equals. When he ate with them, often bringing a party of friends, they held their knives and forks daintily, restrained their conversation, had the feeling of being women of some standing. Lautrec's almost womanly intuition and sympathy shone like a light for them" (Jane Avril quoted in D. Sweetman, Toulouse-Lautrec and the fin-de-Siecle, London, 1999, p.341)

The Elles portfolio

"Lautrec's series Elles (consisting of 10 sheets with a frontispiece and cover) is one of the high points of 19th century art. It was a pictorial to what the artist experienced in the maisons closes (brothels) of Paris. 'They' are 'women to my liking', as he used to say cynically, and he often lived with them for weeks at a time during 1892 to 1895, constant witness of their daily lives, of suffering and intimacy…" (Adriani, p.222)

Fernand Mourlot (1895-1988)

Mourlot Freres

In 1952 the renowned French printer printed this superb series "Elles" for collectors. They are reduced lithographic versions of Lautrec's most famous portfolio. They are truly the most beautiful printing we have been able to find in this size format.

Mourlot Studios was a commercial print shop founded in 1852 by the Mourlot family and located in Paris, France. It was also known as Imprimerie Mourlot, Mourlot Freres and Atelier Mourlot. Founded by Francois Mourlot, it started off producing wallpaper. Later, his son Jules Mourlot would expand the business to handle the production of chocolate labels for companies such as Chocolat Poulain, as well as ledgers, maps and stationary. Starting in the 1920s, Jules' son, Fernand Mourlot, converted one of the locations into a studio dedicated to printing fine art lithography.

As vintage printings of Lautrec's work, in all formats, reach high prices, this mid-century printing offers a superb alternative at a reasonable price that will only appreciate in value.