Toulouse-Lautrec [antikvár]

LifeThe two factors in the life of Henri-Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa which can never be ignored are his noble birth and the tragedy of his misshapen body. These two essential factors, and especially the latter, determined the course of his life and also provided a rich field for the romantic imagination of some of his biogra-pheis- Yet however much we may wish to avoid such a romanticized view of his life, we cannot act as if these things did not exist, and all we can do is to ensure that theii importance is not exaggerated. Toulouse-Lautrec was born at Albi in the night , of 24 November 1864. His parents were first cousins, Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa and Adele Tapié de Céleyran, whose titles of nobility can be traced to the time of Charlemagne. Their ancestors were warriors and lords of Languedoc and Provence; Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, was the defender of the Albigensian Catharists and was defeated by Innocent III in 1229; and Odet de Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, was made governor of the Milan province by Francis I as a reward for his valour at the Battle of Marignan. In less heroic times, the family was one of the most highly esteemed in the South of France, and continued the aristocratic tradition of riding and hunting. Count Alphonse does not seem to have been without good qualities, and in his individualism, his vivacity and his impatience of constraint he was close to his son.When Henri was born, his father presented him with a book on falconry, in which he wrote these words: ' Remember, my son, that an open-air life is the only healthy life there is: everything which is deprived of liberty withers and dies in a short space of time. This little book on falconry will teach you how to enjoy the life of the open countryside, and if one day you come to know the sorrows of life, then the horse first, and after the horse3