To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its grand opening, the ESM will present an extensive exhibition of the French painter and graphic artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). It will open on August 31, 2014 at the Kunstquartier Hagen.

This showcase from the Collection Gerstenberg offers an overview of the graphic reproduction oeuvre of one of the Belle Époque’s most influential artists. Toulouse-Lautrec is renowned mainly for his large color lithographs and commercial posters.

Employing great realism, the artist used them to make the decadence of the - nowadays romanticized - era after the Industrial Revolution and before World War I his subject. Created in France at the end of the 19th century, Toulouse-Lautrec’s oeuvre marks the emergence of Modernism in the 20th century.

At the Kunstquartier Hagen marks a very special location for the the exhibition in honor of the artist´s 150th birthday. This is where, in 1902, the Folkwang Museum was founded. Its art nouveau interiors were designed by Henry van de Velde (1863-1957) and are still on display. Artists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh or Henri Matisse had their first museum exhibitions in Germany here.