Maurice Joyant at the Duck Shoot

Shortly before his death Lautrec painted his friend Joyant at a duck shoot, standing on his yacht in yellow oilskins and souwester, his gun at the ready. The background is only suggested, in some places the wood that Lautrec used as ground shows through - a technique that he developed to perfection. The figure of Joyant, by contrast, is painted with expressive brush strokes, entirely in yellows and russets. The painting was preceded by a number of sketches, and Joyant had to model for his friend no less than 65 times in all.

Maurice Joyant (1864-1930), writer and art dealer, was one of Lautrec’s most intimate friends, whom he had known since their schooldays together. It was Joyant who organised Lautrec’s first exhibition, and he endeavoured to gain recognition for him all his life. After Lautrec’s death, the painter’s father appointed Joyant as executor. He catalogued all of Lautrec’s work and, in 1926-27, wrote the first monograph about him. With Lautrec’s cousin, Gabriel Tapi� de C�leyran, he built up the Mus�e Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi, which opened in 1922.