Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec — Histoires naturelles: Le Chien (1899)

Le Chien

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901)
after Jules Renard (1864 – 1910), Histoires naturelles, Paris, H. Floury, 1899
Medium: Original lithograph on fine wove paper, from the limited edition of 100
Plate size: approx. 22.9 × 31.8 cm

Edition: Limited to 100 copies, numbered 49* (from the 1899 H. Floury edition)
Mark: Stamped with Lautrec’s circular “TL” atelier monogram (Upper margin)
Condition: Excellent; broad margins, very light age tone, no repairs.

In Le Chien, Toulouse-Lautrec captures one of Renard’s most understated animal portraits: a seated dog, patient, tethered, yet somehow dignified in its restraint. The sparse composition just a few faint pencil-like strokes reveals Lautrec’s mastery of economy. Every line breathes character; the dog’s pose, turned slightly away, evokes both loyalty and loneliness.

Translation of Le Chien
Jules Renard, Histoires naturelles, 1899

We cannot put Pointu outside at this time of year, and the sharp wind under the door forces him to leave even his mat. He prefers to crawl toward his warm spot. But we lean forward, tight together, elbows over the fire, and I give Pointu a slap as soon as he touches my foot. Father pushes him away with his foot. Mama scolds him. My sister offers him an empty glass.

Pointu sneezes and goes to the kitchen if we are there.

Then he comes back, circles around us, risking being strangled around the knees, and here he is in a corner of the chimney.

After turning in place for a long time, he sits near the fire and no longer moves. He looks at his masters with one eye as soft as an oil lamp. Only the near side of his muzzle is red, and the scattered embers burn his backside.

Yet he stays, all the same.
We make room for him:
Come then, are you stupid?

But he persists. At the hour when dogs’ teeth fall out from the cold, Pointu, warmed, polished, with cooked tears, tries not to howl, and he opens his eyes full of tears.

Scholarly commentary on Le Chien
Prepared for catalogue use

Le Chien is one of the most nuanced and quietly unsettling texts in Jules Renard’s Histoires naturelles. Unlike the shorter, aphoristic vignettes later reused in anthologies, the 1899 Toulouse-Lautrec edition preserves the full psychological miniature. It is an early, pointed example of Renard’s compressed realism, where domestic scenes become moral tableaux and animals reveal the failures of human empathy.

Pointu, the dog, functions as both character and mirror. Renard avoids sentimentalisation. Pointu is physically compromised, old, arthritic, half-blind, and pushed from one uncomfortable place to another. The family’s reactions are revealing. They are not cruel by intent, merely absorbed in their own warmth, their own minor discomforts, and their own social rituals. The dog becomes the displaced figure in a crowded bourgeois hearth. This dynamic, sketched with dry restraint, is central to Renard’s worldview: the small violences of ordinary life, the indifference hidden inside polite domesticity.

The language is clinical yet compassionate. Renard’s verbs are anatomical: to circle, to press, to slide, to seize. The dog’s body is treated as a set of physical facts rather than an object of affection. The key image, Pointu warming only one side of his face until the embers scorch his rear, encapsulates Renard’s irony. The dog’s desire for warmth becomes a form of self-harm, a metaphor for creatures who endure discomfort simply because belonging is more important than safety.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s illustration reinforces this double meaning. His line is spare, almost emaciated, mirroring the dog’s vulnerability. The visual economy mirrors the emotional economy of the text: tenderness expressed only through absence.

Le Chien thus stands as one of the more psychologically complex entries in Histoires naturelles. The story exemplifies the blend of humour, cruelty, and compassion that makes Renard an innovator of modern prose-poetry, and it shows why Lautrec’s illustrations, with their unsentimental observational style, remain canonical. This pairing is a hallmark of the 1899 edition, where text and image together produce a tone that is both unadorned and deeply humane.

Created in 1899, during Lautrec’s period of convalescence, Le Chien is often read as a self-portrait in disguise: the artist’s own fidelity to art rendered in the guise of a weary companion. Its poignancy lies in that duality—devotion mixed with fatigue.

Rarity and Significance

As with all plates from Histoires naturelles, only 100 copies were printed by H. Floury. The suite stands as one of the final major works completed before Lautrec’s death in 1901 and remains among the most refined examples of late-nineteenth-century book illustration.

While Le Taureau embodies physical power, Le Chien conveys psychological depth and emotional subtlety—qualities that have made it especially prized by collectors seeking Lautrec’s more introspective side. Surviving examples with the full margins and text leaf intact are scarce, often absorbed into museum holdings.

Market and Valuation Analysis

Le Chien appeals because of its tenderness and universal theme of loyalty. Its visual quietness also makes it ideal for collectors seeking a refined, minimal composition suitable for display.

Authenticity Note:

Many “Toulouse-Lautrec” lithographs seen online are 20th-century restrikes or reproductions printed decades after the artist’s death (often around 1950–1980) and marked “in plate – TL” or “after Lautrec.” This work is from the original 1899 H. Floury edition of 100, drawn on stone and bearing Lautrec’s authentic studio TL monogram stamp. It is fully documented in the Wittrock Catalogue Raisonné and represents a genuine 19th-century impression, not a later reproduction.

*(In this listing you can see an image of the Cover and Edition copy which was provided to us by the vendor. We will include a high res print of these pages for your records to accompany the original document, we will also endeavour to issue a copy of the text page that would have accompanied Le Chien.)