TOULOUSE-LAUTREC: The Complete Posters, text by...

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC: The Complete Posters, text by Russell Ash (Pavilion, distributed by Trafalgar Square: $34.95; unpaginated). Toulouse-Lautrec: The name evokes the Moulin Rouge, the putains of Paris, the cancan, the poseur Aristide Bruant (above), the ineffable Jane Avril . . . and bicycle chains ? Indeed. Lautrec didn’t need the money, but he loved pushing the art of lithography beyond the somewhat stodgy limits of the late 19th Century. He accepted commissions to illustrate whatever took his fancy, and while his broad range of interests centered around the demimonde, the mechanics of the bicycle fascinated him too, though his legs were too short to reach the pedals. Of his 31 posters, two advertised “Simpson’s Lever Chain,” one of them puckishly signed L. B. Spoke .

Lautrec’s humor is caught in this stylish book that reproduces all of his posters in a 9x12-inch format begging to be cut out, mounted and framed. His boldness, too, bursts from the page: a few Picasso-esque lines capturing in near-caricature the spirit of his times, while Russell Ash’s text underlines Lautrec’s innovations and improvisations (his crachis --spit--technique involved flicking ink from the bristles of an old toothbrush!). Lautrec’s physical stature--result of badly breaking both legs while in his teens--was dwarfed by his talent and his sheer exuberance. He “never lacked adoring female company,” writes Ash--his gain and our loss: He died almost literally of wine, women and song at the age of 27. Vive Lautrec!