May Milton (1895): Art, History and Details

May Milton (1895) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Posters grew in popularity after 1881, when many restrictions on their placement were lifted and it became unlawful to remove or destroy them. The first exhibition of posters took place in 1884, and they were soon accepted as a legitimate art form. Lautrec, a gifted draftsman, excelled at designing arresting lithographs. May Milton, one of his boldest compositions, illustrates Lautrec's innovative style based on a dynamic pattern of flat, simplified, brightly colored shapes and dramatic silhouettes. Lautrec, an astute observer of character and physical features, captured the life of a decadent era in his radically concise, vigorous representations. May Milton was an English dancer who appeared at the Moulin Rouge, one of Paris's most popular café-concerts. This poster was made to advertise her tour of the United States.

Object facts

• Title: May Milton
• Date: 1895
• Creator attribution: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: color lithograph
• Dimensions: Sheet: 79.5 x 61.5 cm (31 5/16 x 24 3/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1952.10

A detail from the museum

May Milton was the romantic partner of May Belfort, another performer whom Toulouse-Lautrec frequently depicted.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Glaubinger, Jane. "Inventive Impressions." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 41, no. 6 (Summer 2001): 8-9.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.