At the Moulin Rouge (section)

Late one night at the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured the buzz of Paris after dark. Painted around 1892, this scene brings us to the cabaret that ruled the city's nightlife, packed with dancers, drinkers, and regulars of every stripe. A group leans in around a table, deep in talk, while the whole room glows in strange greens and burnt oranges that make the air feel thick and smoky. Off to the right, a woman's face catches a harsh green light that gives the painting an eerie jolt and grabs your attention before anything else.

As a Post-Impressionist, Toulouse-Lautrec painted the crowd he actually knew, so many of these faces belonged to friends and familiar figures from his nights out. He even slipped himself into the full version of the work, walking in the background as a short man, since childhood injuries left his legs underdeveloped and he stood only about five feet tall. Instead of turning away from the world that might have judged him, he studied it closely and left us one of the most frank and unglamorized portraits of Parisian nightlife ever put to canvas.