Lautrec and the Cardboard Paintings

The So-Called Cardboard That Toulouse Lautrec Painted Upon

Not all cardboard is created equal. Let me point out that Henri Toulouse Lautrec worked on canvas, paper, and what is called cardboard. The type of cardboard is not what comes to mind when we picture cardboard. It is neither corrugated nor the brownish processed kraft material composed of wood pulp. It is a pressed material that is sometimes known as pasteboard. The color is generally a neutral grey. If one takes a commercially available artist’s canvas panel and peals off the canvas, you would have a piece of pasteboard that approximates the material HTL painted upon using essence (gasoline) thinned oil paint. The medium allows for a non-gloss finish to the color

When you see an illustration of one of Luatrec's paintings done with this medium on board you miss the luscious matte quality of the way the material first soaks into the pasteboard and then evaporates.

So, why did Henri de Toulouse Lautrec use this pasteboard when he could have used anything else? It was a cheap material, but more importantly perhaps it spoke of the common, everyday and not the fancy salon convention of framed, varnished painting on fine linen.

Yet, here is the interesting thing about the make up of the pasteboard HTL employed - it was a sophisticated blend of fibers that is not breaking down and crumbling as one expects of modern cardboard. That is because while it does contain short fiber wood pulp, it has a percentage of cotton. There is also long fiber linen and in some cases hemp fibers to strengthen the board. Although not intentional, this type of otherwise cheap cardboard is not at all temporary.

What a happy accident!

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/65089/may-milton

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