Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Toulouse-Lautrec was among the students at Cormon's open studio when Van Gogh joined in 1886. He made a pastel portrait of Van Gogh in 1887, now in the Van Gogh Museum.
Atelier Cormon, 104 boulevard de Clichy
Still standing
Outside only
Someone else
The open studio of the academic painter Fernand Cormon, on the ground floor at 104 boulevard de Clichy, where Vincent van Gogh worked from March 1886 alongside Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin.
- 104 boulevard de Clichy, 75018 Paris
- Fernand Cormon's open studio; Van Gogh attended from March 1886
The place, briefly
Fernand Cormon was a successful academic painter who ran an atelier libre — an open studio where students drew from the model without the full apparatus of the École des Beaux-Arts. Vincent van Gogh joined almost immediately on reaching Paris in March 1886, and the encounter that followed mattered far more than the teaching did.
Among the students were Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin — three young painters already impatient with everything Cormon stood for. Bernard's memoirs describe the daily rhythm: Vincent working through the mornings from the nude model with the rest of the students, then drawing from plaster casts in the afternoons in a studio that had emptied out to just himself, Toulouse-Lautrec, Anquetin and Bernard.
That afternoon room is the point. Four painters, all in their twenties, drawing plaster in a half-deserted studio on the boulevard de Clichy — and out of it came the poster art of Montmartre, Cloisonnism, and the colour of Arles. Toulouse-Lautrec painted a pastel portrait of Vincent in 1887, now in the Van Gogh Museum, which is the closest thing there is to a photograph of him from these years.
The building stands. The studio does not, and there is nothing to see but the façade.
Key facts
- Fernand Cormon's atelier libre, on the ground floor
- From March 1886, just after arriving in Paris
- Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin
- Mornings from the nude model; afternoons drawing plaster casts
- Toulouse-Lautrec's 1887 portrait of Van Gogh, now in Amsterdam
- The studio is gone; exterior only
Timeline
Van Gogh joins Cormon's studio in March and meets Toulouse-Lautrec, Bernard and Anquetin.
Toulouse-Lautrec makes his pastel portrait of Van Gogh.
On the map
Questions before you go
Where did Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec meet?
At Fernand Cormon's open studio, 104 boulevard de Clichy, in March 1886. Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin were in the same small group.
Did Van Gogh study formally in Paris?
Only at Cormon's atelier libre, an open studio rather than an academy. He had left the Antwerp academy shortly before coming to Paris.
People who knew this place
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh joined Fernand Cormon's atelier libre in March 1886, working mornings from the nude model and afternoons from plaster casts alongside Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard and Louis Anquetin.
Within walking distance
Moulin Rouge
Where Colette's 1907 mime with her lover Mathilde de Morny set off a riot and was banned by the police — her most notorious Paris performance.
Visit the placeBrasserie Wepler
The big brasserie on the place de Clichy that Henry Miller used as his base during the Clichy years later recreated in Quiet Days in Clichy — somewhere to write, to wait for people, and to watch the square. Currently closed for renovation.
Visit the place54 rue Lepic
The Montmartre flat Vincent van Gogh shared with his brother Theo from June 1886 until he left for Arles in February 1888 — the address where his palette turned from Dutch brown to the colour everyone now knows him for.
Visit the place
Place de Clichy
The crossroads where four arrondissements collide — and where Louis-Ferdinand Céline opens Journey to the End of the Night at a café table, with a recruitment parade passing and his narrator Bardamu jumping up to join the war.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.