HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901)

This poster was Lautrec’s last image of Avril. With her arms raised in a playful surrender, the dancer yields to an appliquéd snake, whose coils wrap around her slender black dress.
Her twisted body might seem exaggerated, but it could have been prompted by Avril’s performances. As the poet Arthur Symons recalled, “She was so thin and supple that she could turn over backward…until she brushed the floor with her shoulders.”