Paul Viaud em almirante do século XVIII

Painted in 1901 and now at the São Paulo Museum of Art, this late work shows Lautrec's friend Paul Viaud dressed in an eighteenth-century admiral's costume — a theatrical conceit that reflects the artist's lifelong love of costume, role-playing, and historical fancy dress. Viaud was a devoted companion who cared for Lautrec during his final declining years. The work dates from the same period as Lautrec's series of paintings inspired by a naval review in Bordeaux, when he was staying in the south and west of France near his family properties. The theatrical historical costume adds an air of melancholy grandeur to what is effectively a valedictory portrait.

The period admiral's uniform provides a grid of formal blue and gold against which Lautrec's searching characterisation of Viaud's face operates. The thin paint application over a pale ground — his characteristic technique on both canvas and cardboard — gives the work an almost fresco-like flatness and directness.