At the Moulin Rouge

1892–95

Oil on canvas, 123 × 141 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago

Performers and friends crowd a table in a famous dance hall. The canvas doubles as a portrait of the artist's own circle.

One performer's face glows a harsh acid green under the hall's electric light. Here artificial glare becomes a subject in itself, even at the cost of a flattering likeness.
It may have been shown first at Les XX, in Brussels, in January 1892.
Look for the artist in the background, dwarfed by his cousin Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran, who towers beside him.
A railing cuts diagonally across the foreground, pulling the viewer into the scene.
Museum text published online says the canvas was once cut down to remove that performer, then made whole again by 1914.

The artist kept a permanently reserved table there, and La Goulue stands behind, fixing her hair. The woman at the right edge is the performer May Milton.

Image: The Art Institute of Chicago · CC0