Stars Of The Moulin Rouge

[poliphilo]

A lot of the stage names are  untranslatable. La Goulue means "The Glutton" . Louise Weber  got the name (this is presumably the polite version) from her habit of helping herself to other people's drinks as she moved about among the tables. I can't see it working on an English language poster. I would suggest "Gobbler" or  "Greedyguts".

Even more baffling is La Mome Fromage- literally "Kid Cheese" or (a little happier) "Cheesy Kid". No, she didn't smell bad. In 19th century street French it means something  like "New Kid on the Block".

La Goulue and La Mome Fromage were (reputedly) lovers. Most of these women were either lesbian or bisexual. They owe their posthumous fame to the artist Toulouse Lautrec-  who painted and sketched them and designed their publicity materials. He was also their pal and got to hang about back stage. 

In Lautrec's pictures they all seem middle-aged. They weren't of course. Maybe he was painting the inner reality. These were people who lived hard, partied hard, had knocked about the world a bit. Jane Avril, for instance- whom Lautrec invariably portrays as a haggard crone- had suffered childhood abuse and a spell in Dr Charcot's mad house. Her dance style was all galvanic and jerky and the punters called her Jeanne La Folle- Crazy Jane.

La Goulue left the Moulin Rouge to star in her own travelling show. It didn't work out and she hit the bottle and ended up as a street vendor back in Montmartre. La Mome Fromage seems to have retired into provincial respectability. Jane Avril lived into the 1940s and got to write her memoirs. 

In photographs they look nothing like their Lautrecian alter egos. Avril smiles for the camera. La Goulue is plump and pretty. La Mome Fromage is even plumper and jolly with it. Back in the 1890s you could be fat and jolly and a sex symbol. None of them looks in the least bit like Nicole Kidman. 



Toulouse Lautrec: La Goulue arriving at Le Moulin Rouge

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What makes Lautrec stand out from other artists of the Paris demi-monde is that he was interested in his subjects as people and even cared for them. La Goulue refused to pose for him (she was helluva feisty gal) which could be why she always looks so haughty in his art. Jane Avril he was in love with, I think.

As a disabled man he identified with society's underdogs. He paints the Moulin Rouge as a place of work and seems to despise the clintele in their frock coats and top hats just as must as the working girls must have done.

The Simon Schama series is very high profile and will almost certainly become available on DVD. No, I've never seen Guernica in person. I'd like to. I all but worship Picasso.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about his paintings, I see your observations are sharp...he does seem to despise the clientele in his work.

Is there any chance you might ever get to Madrid to see the Guernica? It´s in the Reina Sofia Museum which is also worth a visit. A few years ago a Picasso museum was opened in his birth city, Malaga. It´s a small, intimate museum and contains a lot of the "unknown" Picasso, lesser works so to speak but still fascinating.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We got as far as Barcelona last year- and visited the Picasso museum there. They have a lot of juvenilia, plus a magisterial set of variations on Velasquez' Las Meninas done in the late 1950s. Certainly I'd like to visit Madrid. But first up on the agenda (we already have the thing booked) is a trip to Paris next year- where one of our prime objectives will be to visit the Musee Picasso.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I know that series on Las Meninas and it was interesting for me to compare Picasso´s variations with the original Velazquez when I´ve visited the Prado. We´ll be back up in Madrid in early 2007 and re-visit to both the Guernica and the Prado (and to see the expanded Thyssen Museum) is our objective.

It´s been many years since we´ve been in Paris. I think we need to program a trip up that way since we now have lovely cheap direct flights from Seville.