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Artists' fascination with the decadent spirit and glamour of bohemian life in the Parisian district of Montmartre at the turn of the 20th century is the focus of this major exhibition of more than 250 works primarily by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901). Paintings, drawings, posters, prints, sculptures, zinc silhouettes from the Chat Noir shadow play, and printed matter, such as illustrated invitations, song sheets, advertisements, and admission tickets, will be presented alongside depictions of similar subjects by fellow artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec's predecessors Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet; his contemporaries Pierre Bonnard, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso; and poster artist Jules Chéret.

The themes of the exhibition include dance halls, cafés-concerts, and cabarets (featuring a section devoted to the Chat Noir); and performers, such as Aristide Bruant, La Goulue, Jane Avril, Yvette Guilbert, May Belfort, May Milton, Loïe Fuller, and Marcelle Lender. The exhibition will be dominated by Toulouse-Lautrec's most important paintings and celebrated posters, including A la Mie (c. 1891), Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant (1892), The Laundryman (c. 1894), Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric" (1895-1896), the Elles poster and album of prints (1896), and 12 of the 50 known Loïe Fuller prints from 1893, colored by hand by the artist.

Toulouse-Lautrec's work will be seen in the company of important works by many of his contemporaries, including Van Gogh's Agostina Segatori at the Café du Tambourin (1887); Picasso's Le Divan Japonais (1901); and Degas' Café-Concert (c.1876–1877). In addition to seminal paintings, the exhibition will feature a number of important early posters by Jules Chéret, including his Bal du Moulin Rouge (1889) and Folies-Bergère: La Loïe Fuller (1893), and Théophile Alexandre Steinlen's Tournée du Chat Noir (1896).

In conjunction with the exhibition, a thirty-minute film, Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre produced by the National Gallery of Art explores Lautrec's fascination with the avant-garde culture of Montmartre.

Sponsor: Time Warner Inc. is the corporate sponsor of the exhibition.

The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation is proud to be the foundation sponsor for the exhibition.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.