Carmen Gaudin

Carmen Gaudin is an oil painting now under the ownership of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC which artist Toulouse-Lautrec completed in 1884-85.

She would become one of the artist’s favourite models, featuring in a whole plethora of paintings and drawings. Many of these are featured within this website. Normally she would be presented in portraits as herself, but occasionally she would be tasked with posing as a character, such as with Rosa la Rouge where her bright red hair colour was ideally suited.

This was an artist who made use of several different styles within his career, but this painting is most similar to more of a realist approach. There is more accuracy and less expression than some of his post-impressionist work, but it remains a stunning piece. It perhaps most closely matches the work of Edgar Degas and Gustave Caillebotte, the latter who consistently painted in a style that perfectly married elements of Impressionism and Realism.

The artist produced many, somewhat sombre, portrayals of 'ordinary' people, going about their daily lives. In previous centuries the great portrait artists would often concentrate on purely the rich and famous - those lucky enough to be able to afford their services. But over time the content in portraiture became more varied and experimental.

Some artists, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, actually found much great inspiration in capturing those on the fringes of society. In Henri's case, he also felt in tune with this because of his own disabilities.