Moorish Dance (Les Almées)

Lautrec designed the two paintings (Dancing at the Moulin Rouge: La Goulue and Valentin the Contortionist, and Moorish Dance) as decorative panels for La Goulue’s fairground booth. The first records her star performances with Valentin the Contortionist at the Moulin Rouge, the second announces her new fairground show. La Goulue later had to sell the two canvases to pay her debts. A greedy dealer then cut them into several pieces to get a better price. They were later bought back and, in 1929, put together and restored by the Louvre.