In una sala da pranzo privata

By 1899 Toulouse-Lautrec was falling apart. His drinking had put him in a sanatorium that spring, and he had only two years left to live. This is one of the last worlds he painted, a private dining room at the Rat Mort, the Dead Rat, a Montmartre café off the rue Pigalle where couples took a room for the evening. The woman is thought to be Lucy Jourdain, a well-known courtesan, done up in feathers and finery over a glass of champagne. The lamp at the left throws a sickly green light across her face, her mouth open in a laugh and her eyes not quite in focus. The Rat Mort stood opposite a café favoured by writers, and Lautrec was one of its regulars in the few years he had left.