At the Moulin Rouge (La Goulue and Valentin-le-Desosse)

By 1895 La Goulue, the red-headed star whose high kicks had made the Moulin Rouge famous, was on her way down. She left the cabaret to run her own booth at a Paris fairground, the Foire du Trone, and asked Toulouse-Lautrec, an old friend, to paint the panels for its entrance. This is one of them, and it looks back to her glory days: she dances with the double-jointed Valentin, nicknamed the Boneless, while a row of friends watches from the front, among them the writer Oscar Wilde seen from behind. The panels stood out in the open air at the fairground and were nearly ruined by weather before a collector bought and rescued them in 1900. They were later cut into pieces, then reassembled, which is how they survive at the Musee d'Orsay.