What surprises in the museum is that he really was an accomplished painter although he never seems to have settled on a style. You can detect expressionist, impressionist, classical, even chiaroscuro in the 240 canvases on display. He probably influenced Van Gogh and Picasso was a great admirer. Towards the end of his life, in 1891, he taught himself lithography and made the 31 Moulin Rouge posters for which he’s justly famous.
The other UNESCO listed attraction in Albi is the parchment Mappa Mundi, dating from the 8th century, and one of the oldest representations of the world. It belonged to Albi cathedral and you can see a facsimile in the Treasury with information panels explaining the content and the history.
the shape of Europe and even India is represented, although it’s not as close as they thought.
I’m privileged to be shown the original, now kept in the Pierre-Amalric Library and only brought out on special occasions. As well as being exceptionally delicate, its surprisingly small, the size of an exercise book. It represents the world in the form of a horseshoe, centred around the Mediterranean, orientated to the East and features some fifty names of cities, regions, rivers, seas and winds. I can just make out the shape of Europe and even India is represented, although it’s not as close as they thought.
Yvette Gilbert, raunchy cabaret singer of the Belle Epoque and favourite subject for Toulouse-Lautrec