Octave Raquin by Toulouse Lautrec

Painted in 1901 and now at the São Paulo Museum of Art, this work dates to the final year of Toulouse-Lautrec's life, when he was gravely ill with syphilis and alcoholism. Octave Raquin was a figure from Lautrec's social circle in his last period; the work reflects the portraiture that dominated his final output as he retreated from the Montmartre nightlife scenes that had defined his earlier career. By 1900-1901 Lautrec was largely confined to his family's estate at Malromé in the Gironde or staying with friends, producing works of a more intimate, biographical character. He died in September 1901 at the age of thirty-six.

The late style shows thin, rapid application of oil across the surface with minimal reworking, reflecting both Lautrec's characteristic directness and the physical decline of his final year. The figure is rendered with the essentialist line-and-flat-colour approach drawn from Japanese prints that defined his mature portraiture.