Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is one of the stranger figures in the galaxy of great French artists. Of noble birth, rich, mischievous, dissolute, and a dwarf: his characteristics are not those which one readily associates with the creation of great art. And yet it was this curious combination of personal characteristics which provided the mainspring of his artistic urge. Thus any serious study of Lautrec's work must begin wtih an elucidation of his personality. -- Pg. 9.