After the Meal

Of all his contemporaries, Degas undoubtedly has the greatest influence on Lautrec; both were interested in the same motifs, and subject to the same influences. There could be a trace of rivalry in Lautrec’s picture After the Meal, which recalls Degas’s Absinthe. In Degas’s picture the compositional element - clearly showing Japanese influence - is more important than the content. Lautrec, by contrast, is not content to show a couple sitting at a tavern table, rather he reveals to us their characters and the situation in which they find themselves.

The man is Lautrec’s friend Maurice Guibert, and the woman is probably modelled on Suzanne Valadon. Guibert was an amateur painter and worked as a representative for the champagne company Moët et Chandon.