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At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1890

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance, dated 1890, is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The large canvas places you on the edge of a Montmartre dance floor, watching a couple perform while a crowd of onlookers stands around them.

Where to see it

At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in Philadelphia. Display arrangements can change because of rehanging, conservation or loans, so check the museum's official website for current display status before you plan your visit.

What to look for in person

The dancing couple at the center

Start with the pair in the middle of the floor. A tall, thin man in a top hat moves with an angular, almost jointless energy. He is commonly identified as Valentin le Désossé, a dancer associated with the Moulin Rouge. His partner kicks into motion, her skirt lifted to reveal a flurry of white petticoats. Notice how quickly the figures are drawn, with loose strokes and firm outlines, so that the dance reads as movement caught mid-step rather than a posed scene.

A floor that pulls you into the room

Look down at the floorboards. They run on a steep diagonal, leading your eye from the front edge of the picture deep into the hall. The open patch of floor around the dancers works like a small stage, while spectators crowd the edges. This tilted, slightly raised viewpoint and the way figures are cut off at the borders give the impression of standing inside the room, glancing across it, rather than looking at a carefully balanced composition.

The woman in pink and the watching crowd

Near the front of the scene, a woman in a pink dress stands apart from the dancers, and her strong color draws attention away from the center. Behind her, a band of figures in dark coats and hats forms a dense wall of spectators. Spend a moment with individual faces: Toulouse-Lautrec gives many of them distinct expressions and postures. The painting is as much about people watching one another as it is about the dance itself.

About the painting

The Moulin Rouge opened in Montmartre, Paris, in 1889, and quickly became one of the district's best-known dance halls. Toulouse-Lautrec was a regular presence in Montmartre's cabarets and night spots, and their performers and audiences became central subjects of his art. At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance, dated 1890, is one of his early large paintings of this world, made a short time before the posters for the venue that would later make his name familiar far beyond Paris.

The canvas measures 115.5 by 150 centimeters, so in the gallery it is large enough to read almost like a window onto the room. Rather than celebrating the spectacle with polish, Toulouse-Lautrec records it with a sharp observer's eye: the energetic dancers, the bystanders who seem only half interested, the mix of social types gathered in one space. Art historians often connect his approach to the example of Edgar Degas, whose scenes of modern entertainment also used off-center compositions and cropped figures, and to Japanese woodblock prints, which encouraged bold outlines, flat areas of color and unusual viewpoints.

When you stand in front of the painting, try stepping back first to take in the diagonal sweep of the floor, then move closer to see how thinly and quickly much of the paint is handled. The contrast between sketch-like passages and carefully observed faces is one of the most rewarding things to notice. The Philadelphia Museum of Art holds the work, making it a key stop for anyone interested in Toulouse-Lautrec and the nightlife of late nineteenth-century Paris.

Key facts

Sources

• Wikidata Q3633443
• www.philamuseum.org