Welcome to the rich and storied world of the Moulin Rouge, one of Paris’ most iconic cabarets for nearly 150 years. Experience this venue’s art like never before with The Art of the Moulin Rouge. Through the ages, artists of all kinds have been attracted to the vibrancy and vivacity of the Moulin Rouge. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec found inspiration in the Cancan and the impertinence of La Belle Epoque or “The Beautiful Era” that was late 19th-Century Paris. During the 1920s, Mistinguett, the “Queen of the Dance Hall” played muse to the young sketcher Gesmar. Since then, artists have continued to produce hundreds of paintings, prints, posters, and drawings that capture life as a performer in one of the most iconic venues in the world. Fans of Toulouse-Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge will enjoy The Art of the Moulin Rouge. Filled with coloring pages, dot-to-dot puzzles, and color-by-number templates based on the theatre’s most famous posters and program art, coloring enthusiasts will enjoy adding their own unique spin to these legendary and symbolic works of post-impressionism. Following a brief introduction to color theory and ideas for working in different color mediums, present-day artists embark on a creative journey through time to celebrate the lush lifestyles that epitomize Parisian culture as seen through the portals of the storied Moulin Rouge. Thirty full-color Moulin Rouge postcards are also included in this beautiful book.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London, June 16-September 18, 2011.

Picture book biography of the French painter who overcame a crippling childhood disease to create the vibrant poster medium at the turn of the 19th century.

Best known by her stage name, La Goulue (the Glutton), Louise Weber was one of the biggest stars of fin de siècle Paris, renowned as a cancan dancer at the Moulin Rouge. The subject of numerous paintings and photographs, she became an iconic figure of modern art. Her life, however, has consistently been misrepresented and reduced to a footnote in the stories of men such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Where most accounts dismiss her rise and fall as brief and rapid, the truth is that her career as a performer spanned five decades, during which La Goulue constantly reinvented herself--as a dancer, animal tamer, sideshow performer, and muse of photographers, painters, sculptors, and filmmakers. With Beyond the Moulin Rouge, the first substantive English-language study of La Goulue's career and posthumous influence, Will Visconti corrects persistent myths. Despite a tumultuous personal life, La Goulue overcame loss, abusive relationships, and poverty to become the very embodiment of nineteenth-century Paris, fêted by royalty and followed as closely as any politician or monarch. Visconti draws on previously overlooked materials, including medical records, media reports across Europe and the United States, and surviving pages from Louise Weber's diary, to trace the life and impact of a woman whose cultural significance has been ignored in favor of the men around her, and who spent her life upending assumptions about gender, morality, and domesticity in France during the fin de siècle and early twentieth century. Peculiar Bodies: Stories and Histories

Excerpt from Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec: "Au Moulin Rouge," In the Art Institute of Chicago Though Lautrec had sketched his first cabaret subjects in 18 it was not until he discovered the possibilities ree or four years later, that he really found himself. At that moment the Montmartre cabaret was at the height of its fame. The management had shrewdly hired the most popular and eccentric dancers in Paris; along with them appeared famous singers of ballads and sentimental songs. The place was thronged with artists, writers, Bohemians and tourists, and nightly Lautrec had a special table reserved, where he sat, sharply observing and setting down the effects of alcohol and depravity upon the haggard faces of the clientele. Ah, la vie, la vie, he used to mutter as his hand traced the lines of a broken profile or captured, with inimitable swiftness, the splayed and awkward movement of some dancer's leg. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

HISTORY-GENERAL HISTORY