MUSEE ORSAY, Toulouse Lautrec_Jane Avril Dansant_Galerie Francoise Cachin

This painting's protagonist is a well-known dancer from the Parisian cabarets of the late 19th century, Jane Avril, who went on to be the first soloist at the Moulin Rouge and who was the inspirational muse and friend of the painter Henri de Toulouse Lautrec until he died at the age of just 37.

Here you see her dancing, just as she loved to do since she was a child. You should know, in fact, that dance was a lifeline for her after a sad childhood. Born following a relationship between a prostitute and an Italian aristocrat, after spending her first nine years with her paternal grandparents, she was entrusted to her mother who sent her to boarding school. A few years later, she tried to commit suicide by throwing herself into the Seine but was saved by some prostitutes who introduced her to Parisian nightlife and dance, to which she then devoted her whole life....