Interpretation
Toulouse-Lautrec probably painted this work while studying in the Parisian atelier of the popular painter Fernand Cormon. Among his fellow pupils were Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh. With its emphasis on careful study of the human anatomy and its use of a famous ancient sculpture as a model, Scythian Slave in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, The Marble Polisher is indicative of the academic training Cormon provided. But Toulouse-Lautrec also uses broken brushwork and colored shadows here-techniques derived from his Impressionist contemporaries.
Information
- Title
- The Marble Polisher
- Object Number
- y1992-16
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dates
- 1882–87
- Dimensions
- 65.5 × 81.3 × 1.9 cm (25 13/16 × 32 × 3/4 in.) frame: 87 × 102.2 × 10.2 cm (34 1/4 × 40 1/4 × 4 in.)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Forbes Magazine Collection: Malcolm S. Forbes, Class of 1941, Malcolm S. Forbes Jr., Class of 1970, and Christopher Forbes, Class of 1972
- Culture
- French
Comtesse de Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi (by descent to her niece, Germaine d'Anselme); Germaine d'Anselme (by descent to her son, Denis); Denis d'Anselme (still in 1943); Wildenstein, New York; W. Somerset Maugham, Cap Ferrat (until 1962; sale, Sotheby's, London, April 10, 1962, lot 18, to Hartford); Huntington Hartford, New York (1962–1966; sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, May 19, 1966, lot 19); Forbes Magazine Collection (until 1992; gift to the Princeton University Art Museum).
- Scènes et figures parisiennes, (Paris: Galerie Charpentier, 1943)., no. 212
- W.R. Jeudwine, "Modern paintings from the collection of W. Somerset Maugham: pt. 1", Apollo 64, no. 380 (Oct. 1, 1956): p. 101-106., p. 106, fig. 9; p. 104
- W.R. Jeudwine, "Modern paintings from the collection of W. Somerset Maugham: pt. 2", Apollo 64, no. 381 (Nov. 1, 1956): p. 137-141.
- Toulouse-Lautrec: peintures, aquarelles, dessins, (Nice: Meyerbeer, 1957)., no. 3
- W. Somerset Maugham, Purely for my pleasure, (London: Heinemann, 1962)., p. 24; pl. 32
- M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre, (Paris: Collectors Editions, 1971)., Vol. 2: p. 79 (illus.) p. 183, 184.
- Giorgio Caproni and G. M. Sugana, L'opera completa di Toulouse-Lautrec, (Milano: Rizzoli, 1977)., no. 161
- Charles F. Stuckey and Naomi E. Maurer, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, (Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago, 1979)., p. 80 (illus.); p. 81, no. 14
- Gale Barbara Murray, "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: a checklist of revised dates (1878-1891)", Gazette des beaux-arts 95 (n.s. 6) (1980): p. 77-90., p. 86
- Gale B. Murray, Toulouse-Lautrec: The Formative Years 1878-1891, (Oxford, UK; New York: Clarendon Press, 1991)., p. 242
- Richard Thompson et al., Toulouse-Lautrec, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991)., p. 119 (color illus.); p. 118, no. 21
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1992," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 52, no. 1 (1993): p. 36-83., pp. 38–39 (illus.)
- Paul D. Blanc and Brian Dolan, eds., At work in the world: proceedings of the 4th International Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health: what poetry and the visual arts tell us about the history of occupational and environmental health, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Medical Humanities Press, 2012).
- Invoking the Comic Muse: Toulouse-Lautrec's "Le Bois Sacré" Parodie du panneau de Puvis de Chavannes du Salon de 1884 (Friday, February 08, 2008 - Sunday, June 08, 2008)
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (October 10, 1991 - June 1, 1992)
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