Art, literature & history
Leaving the Theater
1896
- Dating
- Exact year
- Held at
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Medium
- Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 31.5 × 26.3 cm (12 7/16 × 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 47.2 × 35.1 cm (18 5/8 × 13 7/8 in.)
- Collection no.
- 1927.963
- Attribution
- By the artist
- Image rights
- CC0 1.0License details
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Leaving the Theater. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; Art Institute of Chicago; The Charles F. Glore Collection. CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). Full-frame proportional resize and JPEG compression.
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
About this artwork
Leaving the Theater — Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. 1896.
Medium: Lithograph in black on cream wove paper. Dimensions: Image: 31.5 × 26.3 cm (12 7/16 × 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 47.2 × 35.1 cm (18 5/8 × 13 7/8 in.).
Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
Infused with a feeling of euphoria, this closeup image depicts the madam of the maison close (“brothel”) in the rue des Moulins leaving a theater. The background sculpture resembles a prop or decoration but also brings to mind the sensual treatment of the female form in French shows of the time. Mirroring this pleasure, the female subject leans back onto her companion with closed eyes, giving the viewer a sense of her blissful theatrical evening.
Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.