Au Pied de l'Échafaud
1893 · Colour lithograph (poster) · Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
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About this work
- Artist
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)
- Year
- 1893
- Medium
- Colour lithograph (poster)
- Original size
- 82 × 59 cm
- Collection
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (department of Prints and Photography)
- Movement
- Post-Impressionism
A condemned man, his shirt open and his hands bound, stares out from the foot of the guillotine while a priest in a top hat and a row of gendarmes wait behind him under the lettering of the newspaper Le Matin. Toulouse-Lautrec designed the poster in 1893 to announce the serialisation of the memoirs of the Abbé Faure, chaplain of La Roquette prison, who accompanied prisoners to execution. The red wooden post of the scaffold, the brown ground and the staring face make it the darkest of his posters, closer to Daumier than to the music hall. Printed by Chaix, Paris. The impression reproduced is in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A grim brown-and-red sheet with a staring prisoner, for a study, library or print room at 16×24 or 24×36 in thin black, no mat. It suits a white or dark grey wall and sits with Caudieux for a contrast of comic and tragic.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Post-Impressionism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1893)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, sophisticated
- Rooms
- study or library, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — dark wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Au Pied de l'Échafaud in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Au Pied de l'Échafaud painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
