Rue des Moulins / The Medical Inspection

Rue des Moulins / The Medical Inspection

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1894. Oil on cardboard. 83.5 × 61.4 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C..

A documentary scene recording the compulsory weekly medical examination for venereal disease imposed on registered sex workers by Parisian police regulation. Lautrec presents the bureaucratic procedure with clinical detachment, depicting the women waiting in line holding up their gowns. Executed on raw, unprimed cardboard using peinture à l'essence, where the exposed brown cardboard functions as an active, unifying mid-tone.

(source: commons.wikimedia.org)

Post-Impressionism

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