François Gauzi

Painted in 1886 and now at the Kunsthaus Zürich, this portrait of François Gauzi captures one of Lautrec's close friends and fellow painter at the atelier of Fernand Cormon. Gauzi would later write an invaluable memoir of his friendship with Lautrec. The portrait dates to the productive period when Lautrec was absorbing the lessons of Impressionism, studying the figure at Cormon's studio, and beginning to frequent the cabarets and cafés that would dominate his mature iconography. Friend portraits from the Cormon years reveal Lautrec's evolving approach to character — always searching for psychological truth over formal elegance.

The portrait shows Lautrec's developing ability to capture likeness and character through economical means. The handling is looser than his mature style, with Impressionist-influenced strokes modelling the face through tonal variation, but the searching quality of his gaze as portrayed already reflects his characteristic psychological penetration.