Kanye West is as famous as a fashion icon as he is as a musician. Madonna’s music is almost incidental to her appeal. But this emphasis on public image is nothing new. Its roots stretch back to fin de siècle Paris, and the lithographs of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.



Paris in the 1890s was a hotbed of live entertainment, renowned for its risqué cabaret clubs like the Chat Noir and the Moulin Rouge. Toulouse-Lautrec was a regular at these louche venues, mostly located in Montmartre – a bohemian enclave where artists, performers and prostitutes mingled with punters from all social classes, from toffs to proles.

Toulouse-Lautrec was the first to realise that the medium is the message.

For Toulouse-Lautrec, this netherworld was a great escape – from the stifling effect of his bourgeois upbringing, and the limitations of his disability. "No matter how bad the show, I always enjoy myself," he said. Among misfits and eccentrics, here was a place where he could be free.

Art gave him a similar release and, although he was a fine painter, it was his lithographs which made his name. He took the showbiz poster to a new level, transforming advertising into art. Before he came along these playbills were purely practical, announcing who was appearing where and when. He was the first to realise that the medium is the message. Rather than merely conveying information, he conjured up a mood.

By creating a dynamic identity for these artistes, and an air of mystique about their personalities and the places they played, Toulouse-Lautrec cultivated a cryptic style of advertising that’s become the norm today. Over a century later, his enigmatic billboards are still just as striking. Like all successful advertisements, they leave you wanting to find out more.

The medium of lithography was central to Toulouse-Lautrec’s success. The process had already been around for a century when he embraced it, but he was the first to really utilise its assets. A lithograph is an image drawn in wax on a stone or metal plate. Unlike etching, intricate detail is a challenge. Toulouse-Lautrec turned this weakness into a strength, pioneering a bold and simple style that’s now regarded as the basis of good design.

Toulouse-Lautrec died in 1901, aged just 36, but he inspired countless 20th Century artists, from German Expressionism to American Pop Art. A new exhibition, at Edinburgh’s Scottish National Gallery, showcases his greatest hits, and reveals the fascinating human stories behind them.