
08/07/2025
By the time Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was thirty-five, he was suffering from alcoholism and dementia, most likely brought on by syphilis. His behavior was unpredictable, and often violent. Desperate, his mother had him committed to a sanitarium outside of Paris. It was while undergoing treatment that he created a series of drawings of the circus. In fact they helped persuade the doctors he was on the mend, ultimately leading to his release.
Joyful visual journalism from fin-de-siècle Paris