Oil paint on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on loan
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec-2058" aria-label="More by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</a>
Two Friends
Bequeathed by Montague Shearman through the Contemporary Art Society 1940
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
brothel
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
couch
countries and continents
embracing
France
friendship
furnishings
interiors
objects
Paris - non-specific
people
places
places of entertainment
prostitution
sex and relationships
sitting
society
woman
<p>In the early 1890s Toulouse-Lautrec made many paintings and drawings inspired by life in Parisian brothels. He is known to have spent days at a time in the brothels, where he was accepted by the prostitutes as a friend and confidant. During these periods he was able to make numerous studies of the women in casual, everyday poses, as they waited for their clients. This painting seems to be a study for part of a larger painting known as 'In the Salon', in the large collection of works by this artist at the Musée d'Albi in France.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint board
5 March 1997
5 March 1997
1997-03-05
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
1997-03-05
Long Loan to the National Gallery
Loan-out
20 March 2005 – 10 October 2005
2005-10-10
20 March 2005 – 12 June 2005
2005-06-12
2005-03-20
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
16 July 2005 – 10 October 2005
2005-10-10
2005-07-16
The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, USA)
http://www.artic.edu/aic
2005-03-20
Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre
Loan-out
15 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
15 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-15
National Museum of Fine Arts (Stockholm, Sweden)
http://www.nationalmuseum.se
2008-02-15
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Loan-out
14 December 2012 – 2 April 2013
2013-04-02
14 December 2012 – 2 April 2013
2013-04-02
2012-12-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2012-12-14
Toulouse-Lautrec
Loan-out
16 October 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
16 October 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-10-16
Kunstforum Wien (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.kunstforum-wien.at
2014-10-16
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - The Path to Modernism
Loan-out
28 August 2015 – 3 January 2016
2016-01-03
28 August 2015 – 3 January 2016
2016-01-03
2015-08-28
Kunstmuseum Bern (Bern, Switzerland)
2015-08-28
Toulouse-Lautrec and Photography
Loan-out
29 June 2017 – 1 October 2017
2017-10-01
29 June 2017 – 1 October 2017
2017-10-01
2017-06-29
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
2017-06-29
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Loan-out
1 May 2025 – 1 May 2026
2026-05-01
1 May 2025 – 1 May 2026
2026-05-01
2025-05-01
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2025-05-01
National Gallery Bicentenary
Loan-out
The Two Friends
support: 479 × 340 mm
frame: 750 × 600 × 95 mm
Bequeathed by Montague Shearman through the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1940
<p>In the early 1890s Toulouse-Lautrec made many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> inspired by life in Parisian brothels. He is known to have spent days at a time in the brothels, where he was accepted by the prostitutes as a friend and confidant. During these periods he was able to make numerous studies of the women in casual, everyday poses, as they waited for their clients. This painting seems to be a study for part of a larger painting known as 'In the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a>', in the large collection of works by this artist at the Musée d'Albi in France.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-02T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</b><span> 1864-1901 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/toulouse-lautrec-the-two-friends-n05142" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05142</span></a> </span><b>Les Deux Amies (The Two Friends)</b><span> 1894 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'HTL' (in monogram) b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on millboard, 18 7/8 x 13 3/8 (48 x 34)</span>
<br/><span>Bequeathed by Montague Shearman through the CAS 1940</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Laugier; Paleseau; with Clovis Sagot, Paris; with Paul Cassirer, Berlin; with Reid and Lefevre, London, 1930; with Georges Bernheim, Paris, 1936; with Reid and Lefevre, London, 1936; Montague Shearman, London, 1936</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Exposition Rétrospective de l'Oeuvre de H. de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) </i><span>, Galerie Manzi, Joyant, Paris, June-July 1914 (104), lent by M. Sagot; </span><i>Ein Jahrhundert französischer Zeichnung</i><span>, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, December 1929-January 1930 (78); </span><i>La Peinture Française aux XIXème et XXème Siècles</i><span>, van Wisselingh, Amsterdam, April-May 1931 (55, repr.); </span><i>French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century</i><span>, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, January 1934 (113); Art Gallery, Toronto, February 1934 (113); Art Association, Montreal, March 1934 (113); </span><i>French Paintings by the Impressionists and Modern Artists</i><span>, W. Scott and Sons, Montreal, December 1934 (18); </span><i>Nineteenth and Twentieth Century French Paintings</i><span>, Boyer Galleries, Philadelphia, April 1936 (2); </span><i>Corot to Cézanne</i><span>, Lefevre Gallery, London, June 1936 (26); </span><i>Milestones in French Painting</i><span>, Lefevre Gallery, London, June 1939 (17); </span><i>The Montague Shearman Collection</i><span>, Redfern Gallery, London, April-May 1940 (12, repr. in colour); </span><i>The Tate Gallery's Wartime Acquisitions</i><span>, National Gallery, London, April-May 1942 (137, repr.); </span><i>A Selection from the Tate Gallery's Wartime Acquisitions</i><span>, CEMA touring exhibition, September 1942-September 1943 (98); </span><i>Acquisitions of the CAS</i><span>, Tate Gallery, September-October 1946 (35a); </span><i>Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901</i><span>, Tate Gallery, February-March 1961 (53)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Gustave Coquiot, </span><i>Lautrec</i><span>
(Paris 1913), p.88; Gustave Coquiot, </span><i>Lautrec</i><span>
(Paris 1921), p.111; Maurice Joyant, </span><i>Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901: Peintre</i><span> (Paris 1926), p.285; M.G. Dortu, </span><i>Toulouse-Lautrec et son Oeuvre</i><span> (Paris 1971), Vol.3, P.549, p.336, repr. p.337 (dated 1894); Denys Sutton and G.M. Sugana, </span><i>The Complete Paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec</i><span>
(London 1973), No.374, p.111, repr. p.110 (dated 1894?)</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Kunst und Künstler</i><span>, XXVIII, 1930, p.193; John Rothenstein, </span><i>The Tate Gallery</i><span> (London 1958), p.129 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>One of a series of pictures of Parisian 'maisons closes' on which Lautrec was working during the years 1892 to 1895. He retired for days at a time to the brothels, where he was accepted by the girls as a friend and confidant, and where he had exceptional opportunities to study the nude in movement - not the professional models of the studios but women closer to nature, unselfconscious in their actions. This series culminated in a larger <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> 'In the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a>' of 1894 (Dortu P.560) now in the Musée d'Albi, which shows girls waiting for clients in the salon of the brothel in the Rue des Moulins. The present work is probably an early study for the right-hand side of this picture, though there is no more than a general similarity. A related painting of the same title and size in the Musée d'Albi (Dortu P.550) has a further figure on the right - a standing girl cut by the edge of the picture - and may represent the next stage in the development of this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.727-8, reproduced p.727</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults brothel cities, towns, villages (non-UK) couch countries and continents embracing France friendship furnishings interiors objects Paris - non-specific people places places of entertainment prostitution sex and relationships sitting society woman