Reine de Joie
by TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Henri de, Lithograph in four colours (poster), 136 x 93 cm
Reine de Joie was a novel by Victor Joze, pseudonym of the Polish writer Victor Dobrski, friend and neighbour of Lautrec in the Rue Fontaine. The poster, designed for bookshop displays, is composed of two parts joined in the middle. It also served as model for the book jacket designed by Pierre Bonnard. The inspiration for the motif probably came to Lautrec from a Japanese woodcut.
The antisemitically tinged novel and Lautrec’s poster provoked a scandal. The scene shows H�l�ne Roland, heroine of the novel, at a richly-laden table, kissing the stout Olizac. Baron Rothschild, who thought he recognised himself in the figure of Baron Rosenfeld, tried in vain to have the book banned.