La Modiste

Toulouse-Lautrec painted this in 1900, in one of his last working years. He had spent part of 1899 in a clinic, drying out after years of hard drinking, and when he came out his friends kept him occupied by walking him round the fashion houses near the Rue de la Paix. In one of them worked a young milliner, Louise Blouet, employed by the hat-maker Renee Vert. Lautrec was taken with her, her red hair especially, and got her to sit. He shows her among the shop's hats, absorbed in her work rather than posing for him. He died the following year, at 36.