Head of a Man
Artist
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
(French, 1864 - 1901)
Date19th century
MediumWatercolor over black chalk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 10 × 7 inches (25.4 × 17.78 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number49-72
Signedl.l.: artist's monogram
On View
Not on viewCollections
Exhibition HistoryThe World of Toulouse-Lautrec, Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, CA, January 29-March 4, 1951, no. 49, as Head of Man.
John Spiva Art Center, Joplin, MO, October 1961.
Town and Country, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, July 23, 2001-January 22, 2012, no. 40, as Head of Man.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured the gleaming silk of this chapeau haut-de-forme, or top hat. This gentleman wears the latest fashion: a moderately high crown of around six inches with a narrow brim, turned down at the front. Worn day or night by aristocrats, businessmen, and men of leisure walking about town, top hats were made of beaver fur until the 1850s. Silk replaced beaver fur due to its relative ease in manufacturing. Unlike women’s hats, which were an art form created by female modistes, men’s hats were made by male chapeliers in a much more standardized way.
With César Mange de Hauke, Paris, by December 18, 1949
Purchased from Hauke by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1949.
Palmer Leeper, The World of Toulouse-Lautrec, exh. cat. (Pasadena, CA: Pasadena Art Institute, 1951).
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