Monsieur Henri Fourcade at the Opera Ball

It is striking that Lautrec chose to portray the banker Henri Fourcade at a Paris ball of all places, where it is not immediately obvious what the subject’s position in public life was. For Lautrec, to paint the banker behind his desk would have meant to show only what was already known about the man: namely that he was a banker. By contrast, the man portrayed at the Opera ball, who is standing significantly forward from the other people in the picture, stimulates the attention, interest and imagination of the viewer.

The man with top hat in the background is Gabriel Tapi� de C�leyran, Lautrec’s cousin.