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Lot Essay
This famous poster, commissioned by Jane Avril herself, was Lautrec's final homage to the flamboyant dancer, and one of the last posters he made before his untimely death in 1901. With her elaborate, red feathered headdress and a black dress embellished with a yellow and green snake, Lautrec masterfully expresses the hypnotic sensuality of Avril's routine which earned her the epithet `La Mélinite', a type of explosive. Her lithe, undulating shape echoes that of the coiling serpent, and evokes the temptress of Baudelaire's poem Le serpent qui danse (The Dancing Serpent):
Seeing your rhythmic walk, beautiful in its abandon, one thinks of a serpent dancing at the end of a stick.
Under the weight of your laziness, your child’s head hangs with the soft looseness of a young elephant’s.
And your body sways and stretches like an elephant ship rolling from side to side....
Although impressions of this poster are not uncommon, as well preserved examples as the present impression, in very good condition, are rare.
Seeing your rhythmic walk, beautiful in its abandon, one thinks of a serpent dancing at the end of a stick.
Under the weight of your laziness, your child’s head hangs with the soft looseness of a young elephant’s.
And your body sways and stretches like an elephant ship rolling from side to side....
Although impressions of this poster are not uncommon, as well preserved examples as the present impression, in very good condition, are rare.