--Phil Beck

One of the most recognizable figures in the history of Western art was born in November 1864—Post-Impressionist painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  Son of French aristocrats, Henri broke both legs as a teenager, and when they failed to heal properly, they stopped growing.  As a result, he stood only 5 feet high as an adult. He hung out in the Moulin Rouge, the famous “Belle epoque” Paris cabaret, drinking heavily to dull the pain in his legs and recording the bohemian lifestyle around him in sketches of entertainers and colorful patrons.  Some of these he turned into posters for the club, among his most famous works.  He died at 36 of acute alcoholism and syphilis.

In 1952, Jose Ferrer starred as Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (not to be confused with the 2001 Nicole Kidman musical). Director John Huston’s biographical portrait focuses on the artist’s tortured love life, particularly his volatile affair with a prostitute (largely fictional, though Lautrec did frequent prostitutes). Fresh from his Oscar-winning role as another physically challenged and unhappy lover, Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), Ferrer spent much of the filming on his knees, his legs strapped behind him.  His physical discomfort mimicked Lautrec’s own, which might have contributed to the sensitivity of his acclaimed performance.  Up to that time Huston was known mainly for hyper-masculine crime and adventure films (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle), so Moulin Rouge is a departure for him, but he brings his vigorous, atmosphere-drenched style to this intimate character study, making it one of the most genuinely affecting of Hollywood’s artist biopics.  Choreographer Bob Fosse credited the rough-and-tumble can-can sequence that opens the film as an influence on his work.

More recently, Lautrec’s life was the subject of a French biopic entitled simply Lautrec (1998).  I haven’t seen it but what I’ve read suggests it is technically impressive in recreating turn-of-the-century Paris but dramatically lacking.  Still, as the only other dramatic film about this fascinating and important artist, it’s worth checking out.

November is also the birth month (1887) of one of the most important American painters of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keefe.  The “Mother of American modernism,” as she’s been called, grew up in Wisconsin and spent time in New York among other places before finding her inspirational home in New Mexico where her signature style emerged in increasingly abstract renderings of flowers, bleached animal skulls, and the sun-baked landscapes of the Southwest.  A feminist icon, she is admired equally for her independence and her unique, powerful art.  In 2014 her Jimson Weed/White Flower No.1 (1932) sold for $44.4 million, the highest price yet paid for a painting by a woman.

Georgia O’Keefe, an hour-long documentary, was produced in 1977 to celebrate her 90th birthday. The only film portrait she allowed during her lifetime, it shows her working in her studio as well as being interviewed. She died nine years later at the age of 98.

In 2009 Lifetime Television premiered a dramatic film, also called Georgia O’Keefe, co-produced by its star, Joan Allen.  The film traces the ups and downs of her marriage to photographer Alfred Stieglitz (Jeremy Irons) as her prominence as an artist grows.  It received widespread critical praise and was nominated for more awards than any other movie in Lifetime’s history.

Seen any of these films?  Tell us what you think of them, or suggest others not covered in the newsletter. Click here to contact Phil Beck with your movie comments or suggestions.

Toulouse-Lautrec on Film:
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Lautrec (1998)

Georgia O’Keefe on Film:
Georgia O’Keefe (1977)
Georgia O’Keefe (2009)

Cheryl Jacobsen is a calligrapher and assemblage artist interested in collaborations, materiality, expressive marks, the work of past scribes, teaching, and especially living in Iowa City where she can pursue all these things on a regular basis.

She is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book, where she teaches classes on the history of western letterforms and modern calligraphic hands. In 2015 she was a visiting faculty member for the 2015 NEH Summer Seminar The Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts: Interpretation Through Production. Cheryl is the author of “A Modern Scribe Views Scribes of the Past” in Scraped, Stroked, and Bound: Materially Engaged Readings of Medieval Manuscripts (Brepols, 2013).
She also runs a freelance studio creating commercial lettering, documents, calligraphic art, and manuscript books. The latest is a facsimile of the Beowulf manuscript on goatskin.

Over the past twenty years, assemblage has grown into an obsessive occupation: “I have collected a crowded basement full of rusty/odd/cool/discarded things that need to be combined with other rusty/odd/cool/discarded things. I think of myself as a matchmaker for these objects and find immense pleasure when I can put them together in the ways they need to be despite what they were originally made for.” A show of her most recent assemblages, “Strong,” opens on Friday, November 20, at Hudson River Gallery in Coralville. Find out more at cheryljacobsen.com.

Recordings of the the recent Art in the Afternoon programs on Zoom are now available on the ArtiFactory YouTube channel.