La passagere du 54-Promenade en yacht
(Salon des Cent)

1896

15 3/4 x 23 1/2 in /
38.1 x 58.4 cm

First edition of 50 impressions
Printed in olive green on imitation japan paper
19 in public collections
RARE

In the summer of 1895, Lautrec embarked on a voyage from Le Havre to Bordeaux with Maurice Guibert on the steamer Le Chili. During the voyage, he discovered a young woman in cabin No. 54, who was on her way to join her husband, a colonial official in Senegal. He was so fascinated by her beauty that, despite protests from Guibert, he decided to stay on board once the ship reached Bordeaux and continue south with the vessel. It was not until they reached Lisbon that his friend succeeded in getting Lautrec-who was determined to carry on as far as Dakar-off the ship. Guibert then took the artist via Madrid and Toledo to the spa of Taussat, and the trip ended in late summer near Bordeaux, at the Chateau de Malrome, the main residence of Lautrec's mother.

Lautrec produced this large print, the Salon des Cent, in the autumn of 1895, from a photograph taken of the woman on board. The later version of the print, commissioned by the magazine La Plume, was used as the advertisement for an international poster exhibition held from October 1895 to March 1896, on the premises of the Salon des Cent, rue Bonaparte.

References: Wittrock P20, Adriani 137