Messalina Descends the Stairs Lined by Female Figures

The sick Lautrec spent the winter of ¹⁹⁰⁰⁄₁₉₀₁ in Bordeaux, where he visited the Grand Th�âtre and painted scenes from Isidore de Lara’s opera “Messaline” and Jacques Offenbach’s operetta “La Belle H�l�ne.” In the last days of 1900 he painted six pictures in rapid succession.