Who would have thought that photography inspired the poster darling of the end of the 19th century, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). But that is exactly what this exhibition at the Bern fine arts museum sets out to demonstrate.
The charming aristocratic dwarf immortalized with panache the belles of whorehouses and the intoxication of the Parisian underlife by alcohol or other substances.
He captured many scenes live, but sometimes, as this exhibition reveals by showing them side by side, he based himself on the images produced by the budding art of photography.
Poster art and photography developped simultaneously with the phenomenal advancements in reproduction techniques at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The Bern exhibition shows how Toulouse-Lautrec operated between the two mediums at a time when the great art of portraiture was replaced by silver plates.