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Cleveland’s 1925 purchase of this work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec marked the first acquisition of one of the artist’s drawings by a museum in the United States. Its subject, Monsieur Boileau, was a gossip columnist known to drink heavily at Le Mirliton, a nightclub. Here, saturated, acidic tones evoke the room’s gas lamps and thinned oil paint absorbs into its support, producing texture that complements the scene’s grittiness. In his own time, Toulouse-Lautrec was considered a portraitist for such depictions of friends and other inhabitants of his neighborhood. He preferred drawing for its immediacy, using it to record his sitters’ personalities through materials and formal choices.

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Page: 1
Source index: 0
Type: photo
Media ID: 0ebd58f7da90a410
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Document data

ID: 173263
Core: obj
Type: drawing

DTO data

{
    "id": "173263",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "Monsieur Boileau at the Café",
    "description": "Cleveland’s 1925 purchase of this work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec marked the first acquisition of one of the artist’s drawings by a museum in the United States. Its subject, Monsieur Boileau, was a gossip columnist known to drink heavily at Le Mirliton, a nightclub. Here, saturated, acidic tones evoke the room’s gas lamps and thinned oil paint absorbs into its support, producing texture that complements the scene’s grittiness. In his own time, Toulouse-Lautrec was considered a portraitist for such depictions of friends and other inhabitants of his neighborhood. He preferred drawing for its immediacy, using it to record his sitters’ personalities through materials and formal choices.",
    "date": "1893",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1409",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q117230237"
    ],
    "creators": [
        1856
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Drawing"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 80.3 x 65 cm (31 5/8 x 25 9/16 in.); Framed: 105.4 x 89.5 x 8.3 cm (41 1/2 x 35 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "France, 19th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1925.1409"
}

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Document identity

{
    "localId": "173263",
    "label": "Monsieur Boileau at the Café",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "drawing"
}

Document source metadata

{
    "id": "173263",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "Monsieur Boileau at the Café",
    "description": "Cleveland’s 1925 purchase of this work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec marked the first acquisition of one of the artist’s drawings by a museum in the United States. Its subject, Monsieur Boileau, was a gossip columnist known to drink heavily at Le Mirliton, a nightclub. Here, saturated, acidic tones evoke the room’s gas lamps and thinned oil paint absorbs into its support, producing texture that complements the scene’s grittiness. In his own time, Toulouse-Lautrec was considered a portraitist for such depictions of friends and other inhabitants of his neighborhood. He preferred drawing for its immediacy, using it to record his sitters’ personalities through materials and formal choices.",
    "date": "1893",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1409",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q117230237"
    ],
    "creators": [
        1856
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Drawing"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 80.3 x 65 cm (31 5/8 x 25 9/16 in.); Framed: 105.4 x 89.5 x 8.3 cm (41 1/2 x 35 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "France, 19th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1925.1409"
}

Document source extras

{
    "tec": "oil and tempera with charcoal on millboard",
    "tombstone": "Monsieur Boileau at the Café, 1893. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901). Oil and tempera with charcoal on millboard; sheet: 80.3 x 65 cm (31 5/8 x 25 9/16 in.); framed: 105.4 x 89.5 x 8.3 cm (41 1/2 x 35 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection, 1925.1409",
    "collection": "DR - French",
    "inscriptions": [
        {
            "inscription": "inscribed, upper left, in gouache: à mon ami Boileau / HTLautrec [HTL in monogram]"
        }
    ],
    "formerAccessionNumbers": [
        "394.1925"
    ],
    "didYouKnow": "The green drink on the table is probably absinthe, a popular drink with artists at the time that was thought to have hallucinogenic properties.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "<em>Exposition des Indépendants</em>. Exh. Cat. Paris: Pavillion de la ville, 1893.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 1246"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Saunier, Charles. \"Critique d'Art: Salon des Indépendants,\" <em>La Plume</em>, no. 96 (April 15, 1893): 171-73.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 172"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Coquiot, Gustave. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1923.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 56; Reproduced: pl. 27"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Brook, Alexander. \"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.\" <em>The Arts </em>4, no. 3 (September 1923): 125-165.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 158"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Barthélemy, A. <em>Paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. Exh. Cat. Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago, 1924.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: no. 1; Reproduced: cover"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Milliken, William M. \"A Painting by Toulouse-Lautrec.\" <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 12, no. 10 (December 1925): 159-161.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 159-161; Reproduced: n.p."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Joyant, Maurice. <em>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, peintre, 1864-1901</em>. Paris: Floury, 1926.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: vol. I, p. 148"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Joyant, Maurice. \"Toulouse-Lautrec.\" <em>L'Art et l'artistes</em> (February 1927): 145-172.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 155"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 40",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1928/page/n44"
        },
        {
            "citation": "“Lists of Objects in the Exhibition.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 16, no. 9 (1929): 159–75.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 167",
            "url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137248."
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Exposition H. de Toulouse-Lautrec au profit de la Société des Amis du Musée d'Albi.</em> Exh. Cat. Paris: Musée des arts décoratifs, 1931.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: no. 98"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Wilenski, R. H. <em>French Painting</em>. Boston: Hale, Cushman &amp; Flint, 1931.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 277"
        },
        {
            "citation": "MacOrlan, Pierre. <em>Lautrec: peintre de la lumière froide</em>. Paris: Floury, 1934.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 95"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Independent Painters of Nineteenth Century Paris</em>. Exh. Cat. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1935.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 34, no. 54"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Milliken, William M. \"The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art.\" <em>The Art News</em> 34, no. 37 (June 13, 1936): 7-14.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 14"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Milliken, William M. \"Superb Art Display Marks Cleveland Museum's 20th Anniversary.\" <em>Art Digest</em> 10 (July 1, 1936): 5-22.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 20"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters, Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Musée D'Albi, France. </em>Exh. Cat. New York: M. Knoedler and Company, 1937.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 24, no. 14; Reproduced: pl. 14"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Uhde, Wilhelm. <em>The Impressionists</em>. Vienna: Phaidon, 1937.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 107"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Milliken, William. \"Silver Jubilee Exhibition.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 89",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25140932"
        },
        {
            "citation": "\"Cleveland Museum: It is a treasure trove of great art masterpieces from all around the world.\" <em>Life</em> (September 20, 1943): 64-68.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 68"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Jewell, Edward Alden and Aimee Crane. <em>French Impressionists and their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections</em>. New York: Hyperion, 1944.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 174"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 37",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAPaintings1945/page/n44"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Visson, Vladimir. <em>A Loan Exhibition of Toulouse-Lautrec, For the Benefit of the Goddard Neighborhood Center.</em> New York: Wildenstein and Company. 1946.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 35, no. 22"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,</em> <em>1864-1901</em>. Exh. Cat. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute Department of Fine Arts. 1947.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 13, no. 16; Reproduced: opp. p. 12"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Saint-Gaudens, Homer. \"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901.\" <em>Carnegie Magazine</em> (1947).",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 257"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Florisoone, Michel and M. G. Dortu. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec: Exposition en l'honneur du cinquantième anniversaire de sa mort</em>. Exh. Cat. Paris: Orangerie des Tuileries, 1951.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 15, no. 42; Reproduced: pl. V"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Jourdain, Francis. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. Paris: Braun, 1951.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 22"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Mack, Gerstle. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. New York: Knopf, 1952.",
            "page_number": "Mentoined: p. 268"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cooper, Douglas. <em>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. New York: Abrams, 1952.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: n.p."
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Toulouse-Lautrec: Exhibition Organized in Collaboration with the Albi Museum. </em>Exh. Cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. 1955.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: no. 39"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Jourdain, Francis and Jean Adhémar. <em>T-Lautrec : Essai sur Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. Paris: P. Tisne, 1955.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 86"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Dortu, M.G., Jean Adhémar, and Madeleine Grillaert. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec en belgique</em>. Paris: Editart, 1955.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: n.p."
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Drawings, Posters, and Lithographs.</em> Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1956.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 46, no. 25; Reproduced: p. 17"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>A Loan Exhibition of 19th and 20th Century French Paintings: Masterpieces Recalled, for the Benefit of the League for Emotionally Disturbed Children, Inc.</em> Exh. Cat. New York: Paul Rosenberg &amp; Co, 1957.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: no. 33"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 510",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n94"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lowry, Bates.<em> The Visual Experience: An Introduction to Art. </em>Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1961.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 72-73; Reproduced: pp. 72, 77"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Centenaire de Toulouse-Lautrec.</em> Exh. Cat. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1964.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 57-58, no. 43; Reproduced: p. 56"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 179",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n202"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 179",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n202"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Caproni, Giorgio. <em>L'opera completa di Toulouse-Lautrec. </em>Milan: Rizzoli, 1969.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: no. 36; Reproduced: pl. xxxvi"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lassaigne, Jacques. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec e la parigi dei cabarets</em>. Milan: Fabbri, 1969.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 99; Reproduced: pl. xxxi"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Dortu, M. G. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre</em>. New York: Collectors Editions, 1971.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: vol. 2, pp. 282-83; Reproduced: p. 283."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lieberman, William S., ed. <em>Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1975.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 208, 268, no. 107; Reproduced: pp. 17, 209"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Thomson, Richard. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. London: Oresko, 1977.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 72, no. 43"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 222",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n242"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Stuckey, Charles F. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings</em>. Exh. Cat. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1979.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 290"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Tabacco storia arte</em>. Rome: Amministrazione dei monopoli di stato, 1980.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 184; Reproduced: p. 221"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Henze, Anton. <em>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Leben und Werk</em>. Stuttgart: Belser, 1982.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 37; Reproduced: p. 38"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Toulouse-Lautrec.</em> Exh. Cat. London: South Bank Centre, 1991.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 18, 23, 133, 160; Reproduced: p 161."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Schimmel, Herbert D., ed. <em>The Letters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 205, n. 1"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Murray, Gale Barbara.<em> Toulouse-Lautrec: A Retrospective. </em>New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1992.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 191"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Walther, Ingo F. <em>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901.</em> Koln: Benedikt Taschen, 1993.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 86"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Robinson, Fred Miller. <em>The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography.</em> Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 72-74; Reproduced: p. 73."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Shimohama, Akiko and Chūji Ikegami. <em>Rōtorekku.</em> Tōkyō: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 1993.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 22-23; Reproduced: p. 23, pl. 34"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Pelfrey, Robert H. <em>Art and Mass Media.</em> Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1996.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 74-75; Reproduced: p. 74."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cate, Phlilip Dennis, Mary Weaver Chapin, and Richard Thomson. <em>Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre</em>. Exh. Cat. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2005.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 69, 256, no. 91; Reproduced: p. 84"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 14"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Bos, Eric. <em>Absinthe, het grote kwaad: de groene fee als inspiratiebron van de kunsten</em>. Groningen : Boekwerk &amp; partners, 2016.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 9"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Zmelty, Nicolas-Henri. <em>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: La Stratégie de l'Ephémère.</em> Paris: Éditions Hazan, 2019.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 150; reproduced: p. 153, no. 95"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lloyd, Christopher. <em>Impressionist &amp; Post-Impressionist Drawings.</em> New York, New York: Thames &amp; Hudson, 2019.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: P. 271"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Zmelty, Nicolas-Henri, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: la stratégie de l'éphémère. 2019.",
            "page_number": "repr. p. 753, no. 95, mentioned p. 150"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Salsbury, Britany. “Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The widely recognized collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>vol. 62, no. 4 (December 2022): Cover, 18-19.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: Cover."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Brown, Heather Lemonedes. \"Monsieur Boileau at the Cafe.\" In <em>Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art, </em>24-31. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 24-31"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Salsbury, Britany. <em>Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 176-181. no. 37a"
        }
    ],
    "catalogueRaisonne": "Dortu P.465",
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1409",
    "creditline": "Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 08:50:57.394000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 173263,
    "dept": "Drawings",
    "coll": "DR - French",
    "med": "oil and tempera with charcoal on millboard",
    "creatorTags": [
        "male"
    ],
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

Page context

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1409/1925.1409_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "0ebd58f7da90a410"
}

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