“In Bed” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“The Bed the Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is a painting from between 1892 and 1893, which depicts two women sharing a bed. It is one of several paintings around similar dates showing women in bed.

Our “In Bed” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Tour includes:

“In Bed the Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Private collection.
“The Bed” (Le lit) by by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Musée d’Orsay
“In Bed: The Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Private collection

Toulouse-Lautrec became fascinated by the nightlife in Paris. Through the 1890s, he spent more and more time painting everyday scenes of life in the brothels.

He was commissioned to produce paintings for the salon at a brothel on the rue d’Ambroise. He spent time observing the brothel, its residents and visitors, while they worked and at quieter moments, and made sixteen portraits of the prostitutes.

These paintings demonstrate a close and intimate observation and compassion towards the subjects, without any sense of sensationalism or voyeurism.

“The Bed the Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“In Bed the Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is painted in the manner of Post-Impressionism, featuring two women passionately kissing in bed.

Toulouse-Lautrec has captured the mutual affection between them as they lie under the white covers in bed, facing each other, exchanging a tight, passionate kiss.

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“The Bed” (Le lit) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“The Bed” (Le lit) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicts two women lying in bed gazing at one another with intimacy.

The white sheets of the bed contrast with the red bedspread, headboard, and wall behind. The women face each other, their bodies concealed beneath voluminous bedclothes.

The painting is suffused by a warm glow, perhaps the rosy light of the morning or the gas lamp.

Toulouse-Lautrec frequented brothels in Paris, and he admired the unguardedness of the women.

“The Bed” (Le lit) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Title: “The Bed” (Le lit)
Français : Dans le Lit
Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Year: 1893
Medium: oil on cardboard
Dimensions Height: 54 cm (21.2 in); Width: 70.5 cm (27.7 in)
Museum: Musée d’Orsay

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“In Bed: The Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“In Bed: The Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicts two women caught up in a passionate moment. Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated by painting pleasurable and sensual delight.

The color scheme that Toulouse-Lautrec selected provides an emotionally evocative contrast in expressing the tender love shared by the couple, as though they did not want to be separated from each other.

Toulouse-Lautrec was interested in portraying people during intimacy with subtlety depth and tenderness. Toulouse-Lautrec was a defender of gay rights, and he stood by his friend Oscar Wilde throughout the writer’s harrowing trial in Britain.

“In Bed: The Kiss” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Title: In Bed: The Kiss
Français: Au lit: le baiser
Artist: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Year: 1892
Museum: Private collection

Sponsor this Page for additional Content

Additional Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec artworks with a similar theme to be covered in later updates, subject to Sponsorship of this page, will include:

“The Sofa” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Rue des Moulins, 1894” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – National Gallery of Art, DC
L’abandon (Les deux amies) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Private Collection
“Au Salon de la rue des Moulins” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Musée Toulouse-Lautrec

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (1864 – 1901) was a French painter and illustrator and amongst the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period.

His immersion in the colorful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing and provocative images of the modern and decadent scenes of those times.

Toulouse-Lautrec was born to a wealthy and aristocratic family; unfortunately, he suffered from congenital health conditions.

Modern physicians attribute his condition to an unknown genetic disorder, sometimes known as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome.

His legs ceased to grow so that as an adult, he was extremely short (1.42 m or 4 ft 8 in). He developed an adult-sized torso while retaining his child-sized legs.

In his less-than-20-year career, Toulouse-Lautrec created over a thousand canvas paintings, watercolors, prints, and posters.

Also, he left over five thousand drawings. His style was influenced by the Impressionists and by the classic Japanese wood prints, which became popular in art circles of his time in Paris.

Toulouse-Lautrec

Name: Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa
Born: 1864 – Albi, Tarn, France
Died: 1901 (aged 36) – Saint-André-du-Bois, France
Resting place: Cimetière de Verdelais
Nationality: French
Movement: Post-Impressionism, Art Nouveau
Notable Works:
- At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance
- Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in “Chilpéric”
- At the Moulin Rouge
- La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge
- At the Moulin-Rouges, Two Women Waltzing
- Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge
- Portrait of Vincent van Gogh
- In Bed the Kiss, Le lit, Au lit: le baiser