Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Chronicler of fin-de-siècle Montmartre — cabarets, dancers, brothels, and the electric Paris night. Born into the old French aristocracy, Toulouse-Lautrec broke both legs as a teenager in two separate accidents; the bones never properly healed and his legs stopped growing, leaving him at adult height of about 1.52 m. He moved to Paris, settled in Montmartre, and turned the demi-monde into his subject. His posters for the Moulin Rouge and the Divan Japonais helped invent modern graphic design, with their flat color blocks, hand-drawn lettering and willingness to crop a figure at the knee. He died at thirty-six, his health destroyed by alcoholism and syphilis.