Toulouse-Lautrec is renowned, as critic Gustave Geffroy wrote in 1914, as "...the quintessential chronicler of Paris, as it is understood by those who come here seeking bright lights and wild pleasures." (G. Geffroy, "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. XII, no. 4, Aug., 1914, pp. 91-92) Over the course of his short artistic career, Lautrec executed innumerable scenes of the Parisian demi-monde, focussing his attention in the late 1880s and early 1890s upon the popular entertainments of Montmartre -- the circus, the café-concert, the cabaret, and above all the bal or dance-hall. In the present picture, Lautrec renders one of the most celebrated of these bals, the Elysée-Montmartre, rumored by historians to have been the very first venue of the legendary dancer of the chahut, La Goulue.

It is not only Lautrec's familiarity with his subject but also his remarkable proficiency as a draughtsman which makes works like A l'Elysée-Montmartre so effective at capturing the riotous atmosphere of Montmartrois leisure. As Claire Frèches-Thory comments in the catalogue to a recent exhibition of Lautrec's work, "The speed of execution, evident from every brushstroke, is the result of long, deep and close observation of scenes so fleeting that they must always be caught on the wing: a world in which Lautrec has no rival." (exh. cat., Toulouse-Lautrec, Hayward Gallery, London, 1991, p. 272)