La Bouillabaisse--Menu Sescau

1895

7 3/4 x 11 3/4 in /
17.8 x 27.9 cm

Single edition, size unknown
Printed in olive-black on wove paper
Text by another hand
Used as a menu on 16 March 1895
Five in public collections
VERY RARE

This menu card for 16 March 1895, is decorated with a drawing of Paul Sescau playing the banjo and a caricature of Maurice Guibert, both photographer friends of Lautrec's. It was created for a party celebrating Tristan Bernard's new hit play, Les Pieds nickels, which had opened the night before. The witty fantasy menu, probably written by Lautrec himself, though not in his hand, includes bouillabaisse and ‘Foies gras de l'oie Fuller' (liver of Loie/Goosie Fuller), an irascible reference to the unfortunate corpulence and possibly the foolishness of the dancer who had rejected his work in 1892.

References: Wittrock 94, Adriani 127, Frey 406