As we prepare to present a newly restored version as part of Cinema Revival , Lauren Caskey, an assistant in the Wex's Education department, took the opportunity to consider the movie from an art historical perspective. While these aspects are often associated with late nineteenth-century French society in general, in art-historical circles they are most frequently connected to the eccentric artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.
The film opens mid-dance performance at popular Parisian concert hall the Moulin Rouge. Located on the boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, the Moulin Rouge was one of several entertainment venues that grew in notoriety toward the end of the century.
Again, the personalities Toulouse-Lautrec came into contact with became the subjects of his work. Yet they and the darker side of Parisian society that the artist aimed to represent were significantly different from the people and places of his upbringing.
Those within the demi-monde were often steeped in alcohol and drug use, prostitution, and gambling. Though little is known about the actual Marie-Charlet, her presence in the film is representative of a broader tendency by artists at the time to utilize prostitutes as models. It is commonly held that the semi-nude woman depicted in La Toilette is Marie-Chalet. She sits hunched over on the floor, auburn hair tied at the base of her neck. A black stocking hangs loosely around her right calf and a blue-grey sheet covers her waist.
A small bathtub is situated in front of her slightly to the left. You have a bathtub! The mirror behind her reveals that a bourgeois man wearing a suit and top hat has approached the counter. Her corseted waist and golden-brown hair echo the champagne bottles for sale on her right. In the film, however, it is Toulouse-Lautrec who approaches the counter.
