Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, "Le Sommeil"
naked young woman asleep in a bed, see Wittrock 154, chalk lithograph ...

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, "Le Sommeil"
naked young woman asleep in a bed, see Wittrock 154, chalk lithograph printed in reddish brown, 1896, probably later print, monogram "TL" in a circle ligatured in the stone below the image on the left, with brown margins in the mount, framed under mount and behind glass, mount cut-out approx. 28 x 38 cm. Artist's info: actually Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. Painter, graphic artist and poster artist (1864 Albi to 1901 at Malromé Castle, Gironde), burdened with hereditary diseases due to the incestuous connection of his parents, spent numerous stays in sanatoriums and hospitals, then turned to art, First instruction in drawing by René Princeteau in Paris, his parents encouraged him to become a painter, from 1882 pupil of the Parisian fashion painter Léon Bonnat, later with the salon painter Fernand Cormon, strong influence and friendships among the Parisian artist bohemians such as Vincent van Gogh, Émile Bernard, Louis Anquentin and Francois Gauzi, 1884 own flat and studio at Montmartre in Paris, the surrounding entertainment establishments and pubs become his second home, here first exhibitions and turn to poster art as well as commissions as a commercial artist, produced lithographs as posters or as illustrations for newspapers and magazines mostly with artists and personalities of the French Belle Époque (most of whom he knew personally, e.g. Aristide Bruxelles, 1885).e.g. Aristide Bruant in 1885), in 1888 he turned to the circus, cabaret and demimonde milieu, source: Thieme-Becker and Wikipedia.