La Goulue: Three Candid Photographs

1905

Anonymous

3 1/4 x 3 in /
7.6 x 7.6 cm

Original photographs

La Goulue, once the most famous dancer in Paris, had fallen from her pedestal into a life of alcoholism and poverty. Attempting a comeback, she set up a tent at a street fair on the outskirts of Paris, where she belly-danced.

These images are particularly valuable for their ability as a trio to honestly capture La Goulue's later life. Lacking the glamour of her days at the Moulin Rouge, she lived in the small caravan next to her performance space. After failing here, she would go on to work as a lion tamer before obtaining her final occupation of selling peanuts outside the Moulin Rouge.

References: Frey 409