Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)

Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lautrec designed this playbill for Victor Barrucand’s adaptation of the fourth-century Sanskrit love story translated as "Le Chariot de terre cuite" (The Little Clay Cart). An ornamental elephant, possibly inspired by the papier-mâché model at the Moulin Rouge, forms the base of a decorative platform at the top of which anarchist critic Félix Fénéon strikes a dramatic pose. Fénéon recited the prologue for the production, which opened Jan 22, 1895 at the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre in Paris. Lautrec also designed the sets for the fifth act.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)Playbill for "Le Chariot de Terre Cuite" (The Little Clay Cart)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.