Paul Sescau: Toulouse-Lautrec's Elusive Neighbour

Abstract

If posterity has remembered Paul Sescau at all, it is as the subject of one of Toulouse-Lautrec's most enigmatic posters, a work that itself has been subjected to much misinterpretation and misdating over the years. The myth has tended to obscure Sescau and his contribution to the development of photography as a narrative form of art. During his three decades as a professional photographer in Paris, beginning in the 1890s, Sescau popularised the photo-roman and pioneered its portable spin-off, the narrative postcard series. However, since his death, Sescau's work has generally been overlooked as he was noticeably reticent, belonging to no professional associations, never exhibiting in photographic salons, and leaving behind no known personal or studio archives. This article retraces Sescau's life and career in photography and his role as an unlikely extra in some of Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings. It also re-evaluates Lautrec's Sescau poster in the light of the two men's complex creative and social interactions and, in particular, their shared enthusiasm for the dance halls of Montmartre.