# Moulin Rouge: La Goulue > Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - 1891 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/toulouse-lautrec/toulouse-lautrec-moulin-rouge-la-goulue/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-15 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - **Date:** 1891 - **Medium:** Color lithograph printed in four colors from multiple stones (this impression: three sheets of wove paper) - **Dimensions:** Sheet: 190 x 116.5 cm (74 13/16 x 45 7/8 in.) - **Object type:** Print - **Period:** French, Belle Epoque (late 19th century) - **Current location:** The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Department of Drawings and Prints - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary This record describes one specific impression of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's first poster: the Metropolitan Museum of Art's sheet, accession 32.88.12, purchased in 1932. Commissioned in 1891 by Charles Zidler for the Moulin Rouge to advertise its star dancer La Goulue, it was printed not by Lautrec's later regular printer Edouard Ancourt but by the commercial house of Charles Levy, and it turned an untested 27-year-old painter into the defining poster artist of his generation overnight.The Art Institute of Chicago holds a separate impression of the same design, accession 1954.1193, with its own distinct provenance through the collection of five-term Chicago mayor Carter H. Harrison -- a different physical object, kept clearly distinct here from the Met's own sheet. Neither impression's full life before it reached its museum is documented, and no reliable count exists of how many complete impressions of this poster survive worldwide against an original print run usually but unreliably estimated at about 3,000.La Goulue herself, born Louise Weber, went from the era's highest-paid entertainer to death in poverty in 1929, a contrast this record states rather than dramatizes: a single impression of the poster bearing her image now carries auction estimates in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1891** Moulin Rouge (commissioning management, under director Charles Zidler) `[documented]` (commission and printing) Commissioned by Zidler for the cabaret and printed by the commercial house Affiches Americaines, Charles (Ch.) Levy, Paris, in an edition estimated at roughly 3,000 impressions in secondary literature; no primary print order has been located. Pasted publicly as street advertising in 1891. - **1891-1932** Unrecorded `[unknown]` (gap) No owner, dealer, or collection is documented for this specific sheet between its 1891 printing and its appearance in the Met's 1932 accession record. - **1932** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York `[documented]` (purchase) Purchased with the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, the acquisitions endowment established by paper manufacturer and print collector Harris Brisbane Dick, whose earlier gift and fund led to the creation of a separate Met print department in 1916. Accession number 32.88.12; no dealer or seller is named in the sources consulted. - **1932-present** Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Drawings and Prints `[documented]` (custody) Remains in the Met's collection under accession 32.88.12. No gallery number is assigned in the museum's own object record. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **2014-05-02** Sotheby's, - Estimate: USD 200,000-250,000 - Hammer: not published in the sources consulted (result requires account login) - With premium: not published in the sources consulted - Prints sale, New York, lot 142. Not a standard finished poster impression: catalogued as one of Wittrock's three recorded trial proofs and the only known impression of the key (line) stone printed alone, in black, using the spatter (crachis) technique, on two joined sheets. Documents a printing stage rather than a finished four-color impression. - **2019-04-29** Sotheby's, - Estimate: USD 250,000-300,000 - Hammer: not published in the sources consulted (result requires account login) - With premium: not published in the sources consulted - Prints & Multiples Evening Sale, New York, lot 28. Two-sheet impression, linen-backed. Delteil 339; Adriani 1; Wittrock P1. - **2026-04-14** Sotheby's, - Estimate: USD 150,000-250,000 - Hammer: not published in the sources consulted (result requires account login) - With premium: not published in the sources consulted - Prints & Photographs Part I, lot 12. Two-sheet impression (third, masthead sheet replaced and redrawn), catalogued as Wittrock's "C of D" state. Consigned as Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, Japan. - **2014 (exact date not established)** not named in the source reporting it, - Estimate: not given - Hammer: GBP 260,000 as reported by MyArtBroker; not stated whether hammer or premium-inclusive - With premium: not specified - MyArtBroker's seller's guide to the artist cites this result without naming the auction house, lot number, or city. It does not reconcile with the USD-denominated New York Sotheby's lot independently identified above for the same year, which carried a different estimate range. Recorded here as unverified rather than merged into a single confident figure. ## Open questions - What was the actual original print run of this design? An estimate of approximately 3,000 is repeated across secondary and tertiary sources, including an uncited figure in Wikipedia's own article, but no primary print order or ledger has been located. - Who owned or held this specific Met impression between its 1891 printing and its 1932 purchase by the museum? No dealer, agent, or private owner is named in the sources consulted. - What is Louise Weber's correct birth year? Most sources give 12 July 1866; Encyclopedia.com gives 1869. This record follows 1866 but the discrepancy is unresolved. - How many large, intact impressions of this design survive today across all recorded states? No comprehensive census was found; the only sourced count located covers a single state (the Victoria and Albert Museum's four known copies of Wittrock's two-sheet Version C), not the edition as a whole. - Has a forged or later restrike specifically of Moulin Rouge: La Goulue ever circulated? General scholarship documents Lautrec's posters as a class vulnerable to conflating early and later pulls, and a documented restrike case exists for a different Lautrec project (the 1895 Editions Joubert stones), but no case specific to this title was found in the sources consulted. - What is the true source and basis of the GBP 260,000 result MyArtBroker reports for 2014? No auction house, lot number, or hammer-versus-premium breakdown is given, and it does not match the USD-denominated New York Sotheby's lot independently identified for the same year. ## Sources - [1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Moulin Rouge: La Goulue,' object record and public Collection API (accession 32.88.12, object ID 333990). - [2] The Art Institute of Chicago, 'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue,' object record and public API (accession 1954.1193). - [3] Victoria and Albert Museum, 'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue,' object record (E.704-2000), including its identification as Wittrock's Version C and the four known public-collection copies of that state. - [4] Sotheby's, Prints, New York, 2 May 2014, lot 142. - [5] Sotheby's, Prints & Multiples Evening Sale, New York, 29 April 2019, lot 28. - [6] Sotheby's, Prints & Photographs Part I, 14 April 2026, lot 12 (Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, Japan). - [7] MyArtBroker, 'A Seller's Guide to Henri De Toulouse Lautrec.' Tertiary dealer source; used for the Wittrock catalogue raisonne discussion and a reported 2014 London result that could not be independently verified. - [8] Wikipedia, 'Moulin Rouge: La Goulue.' Tertiary source; the article's own print-run figure carries no citation. Flagged for replacement with a Wittrock or Adriani catalogue entry. - [9] Wikipedia, 'La Goulue.' Tertiary source for Louise Weber's biography and death. Flagged for replacement with Will Visconti's monograph (source 10) where the two differ. - [10] Will Visconti, Beyond the Moulin Rouge: The Life and Legacy of La Goulue (University of Virginia Press, 2022), as reported by the University of Sydney. - [11] Montmartre Artists' Studios (montmartrefootsteps.com), 'Toulouse-Lautrec's Moulin Rouge Paintings and Posters.' Tertiary blog source, used only for an unattributed contemporary anecdote; flagged for replacement with a period press account. - [12] Cora Michael, 'Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901),' Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. - [13] Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 'Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril Looking at a Proof,' for Edouard Ancourt's workshop and master printer Pere Cotelle's role in Lautrec's later posters. - [14] Riva Castleman and Wolfgang Wittrock, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Images of the 1890s (Museum of Modern Art, 1985), p. 44, for the quotation 'I have always been a pencil,' as given on Wikiquote. - [15] Wikipedia, 'Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa.' Tertiary source, for the artist's father and family background. - [16] Sotheby's, '21 Facts About Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.' Tertiary source for general biographical facts (childhood accident, likely genetic cause, output, death). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.