The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (), also known as The Drinker (), is a late 1880s, oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The painting was created just before he became successful as an artist. It depicts a drunken woman drinking alone in a club, reflecting the counterculture of Montmartre and the spectre of alcoholism among French women during the Belle Époque. The model in The Hangover is artist Suzanne Valadon, Lautrec's lover. In the early 1880s, after falling from a circus trapeze at the age of 15 and suffering a back injury, Valadon began working as an art model in Montmartre. She had been drawing all her life, but now she pursued a career as an artist, becoming the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

French cabaret singer and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant is thought to have influenced the development of the painting and possibly even its title. Lautrec's technique is loosely reminiscent of both the color theory of Neo-Impressionism and the technique of Lautrec's art school friend Vincent van Gogh. The work was preceded by several preparatory studies followed by a drawing in ink and chalk that was later published in Le Courrier français in 1889. Lautrec drank copious amounts of alcohol to deal with pain from his assumed underlying genetic disorder which left him disabled. Alcoholism and the syphilis he later acquired due to his habit of frequenting brothels would later contribute to his death at the young age of 36.

The work was on permanent exhibition at Le Mirliton in the late 1880s and early 1890s. It was first exhibited in the United States at the Armory Show in 1913. It is now held by the Fogg Museum, while the study and drawing are both held by the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec. The Hangover is one of several different works by Lautrec featuring Suzanne Valadon, including Maria Big with Child (1884) in the Von der Heydt Museum, Portrait of Suzanne Valadon (1885) in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Portrait of the Painter Suzanne Valadon (1885) in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and Rice Powder (1887) in the Van Gogh Museum.

Background

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) came from an aristocratic family related to the counts of Toulouse. Originally from Albi in southern France, his parents separated when he was young and he later moved to Paris with his mother. Lautrec was disabled, possibly due to a genetic disorder known as pycnodysostosis.Harris, James C. (August 2005) "The Hangover (Gueule de Bois)". Arch Gen Psychiatry. 62 (8):824. . Ike, John David (Spring 2017). "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Disability and Art in Fin-de-Siècle Paris". The Journal for the Humanities in Rehabilitation. Emory University. His birth parents were cousins, so there is speculation that his health problems came about due to their intermarriage. Lautrec's legs remained child-sized, but his torso continued to grow as an adult. He required a cane to walk, and he did so hunched over, which invited derogatory comments about his appearance.Hewitt, Catherine (2017). Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon. New York: St. Martin's Press. . . Lautrec's father hired deaf and mute artist René Princeteau as his art tutor in his teenage years; the young Lautrec learned by copying Princeteau's work, much of which was focused on sports, hunting, and horses.Mack, Gerstle (1953). Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: A.A. Knopf. pp. 42–63; 70–73. . Princeteau helped Lautrec get accepted into the Paris studio of Léon Bonnat at the age of 17,Courtois de Viçose, Alexandra (2022). "Deaf gain: Toulouse-Lautrec's early training with Rene Princeteau". In Ann Millett-Gallant and Elizabeth Howie (Ed.). Disability and Art History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century. Routledge. pp. 123–139. . where he trained as a painter under Bonnat and Fernand Cormon. In the early to mid-1880s, Lautrec took up residence in Montmartre, first moving to 19 bis rue Pierre-Fontaine around 1884, then later back to a different unit in the same building in 1887. Montmartre was well known for its connection to the arts since the 12th-century reign of Louis VI, who was a notable patron. The attraction of jobs and low rents brought many people to the district. In the late 19th century, Montmartre was inhabited by "small tradesmen, entertainers, petty criminals, prostitutes, artists... those of Spanish, Flemish – even northern French – descent... poor workers, mattress menders and circus performers... factory workers, seamstresses, laundresses and artisans".Roe, Sue (2015). In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and Modernism in Paris 1900–1910. New York: Penguin Press. p. 15. . .

Between 1884 and 1889, French laundress Carmen Gaudin modeled for Lautrec for some 15 paintings. In the late 1880s, Lautrec began working on a series of large paintings based on the Cirque Fernando, a popular French circus in Montmartre. His friend and colleague, Italian Impressionist painter Federico Zandomeneghi (1841–1917), recommended his own model, Marie-Clémentine Valadon,Stuckey, Charles F. (1979). Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago. pp. 124–133. . who had begun working as an art model after injuring herself as a circus trapeze artist at the age of 15.Varriano, John (2010). Wine: A Cultural History. Reaktion Books. pp. 194–203. . . At the same time, nightclub owner Aristide Bruant opened Le Mirliton in 1885, a popular cabaret where both Valadon and Lautrec mingled.Henze, Anton. (1982). Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec: Leben Und Werk. Stuttgart: Belser. pp. 24–25, 29, 36, 86. . . Taking Zandomeneghi up on his offer, Lautrec hired Valadon to pose for one of his circus scenes which he then expanded into a larger series. Lautrec's circus works show Valadon riding side-saddle on a horse as she is about to dive through a hoop held by a clown. They were later prominently featured at the Moulin Rouge, and were said to be so influential that it led Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) to try their hand at similar circus scenes in homage to Lautrec. By that time, Valadon had already modeled for Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.Chadwick, Whitney (2020). Women, Art, and Society. 6th Ed. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 294–295. . . Lautrec famously parodied Puvis' painting of The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and Muses. Valadon, as it turns out, was the original model for most of the figures in that painting.Sweetman, David (1999). Toulouse-Lautrec and the Fin-De-Siécle. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 163–166. . . Sociologist Janet M.C. Burns of the University of New Brunswick notes that "it was Toulouse-Lautrec who first encouraged [Valadon's] intellectual and artistic development".Burns, Janet (1991–1992). "Looking as Women: The Paintings of Suzanne Valadon, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Frida Kahlo". Atlantis 18 (1&2): 25–46. He was the first person to buy her artwork and he also gave her the idea to change her name from Marie to "Suzanne".Storm, John (1958). The Valadon Drama: The Life of Suzanne Valadon. New York: Dutton. p. 20, 73–79. .

Historian Patrick Bade argues that Lautrec was an outsider as a disabled man in 19th-century, aristocratic French society, where he could "no longer follow the traditional outdoor pastimes of his class—notably hunting".Bade, Patrick (2000). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: Parkstone. pp. 9, 18, 87. . . Heller, Reinhold (1997). Toulouse-Lautrec:The Soul of Montmartre. Munich: Prestel-Verlag. pp. 8–15, 20-21, 93–98.. . Lautrec's father was said to have spurned his son over his disability, making it clear that he valued the skills of horsemanship, hunting, and soldiering in the family, things Lautrec could not do.Arnold, Matthias (1987). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901: The Theatre of Life. Cologne: Taschen. . . "[H]is own sense of 'otherness' resulting from his physical appearance and infirmities gave him a strong empathy with those who would have been regarded by many of his contemporaries as deviants", writes Bade. The outsider French subculture of sex work held a special appeal for Lautrec.Thomason, Richard; Cate, Philip Dennis; Chapin, Mary Weaver; Coman, Florence E. (2005). Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, Princeton University Press. pp. viii, 68–70 . . Biographer Julia Frey believes that Lautrec was partly attracted to prostitutes as a form of rebellion against his deeply religious and controlling mother. Lautrec became obsessed with brothels (maisons closes) and his commercial work for venues like the Moulin Rouge, where prostitutes worked in secret behind closed doors, gave him easy access. He completed around 50 works featuring prostitution (including the Elles series, 1896), most of which were not widely known until after his death.Schreiber, Rachel. (2016). Gender and Activism in a Little Magazine: The Modern Figures of the Masses. Routledge . p. 123. . . Art historian Hollis Clayson maintains that Lautrec was responsible for forging the connection between prostitution and fin-de-siècle French art.Clayson, Hollis (2003). Painted Love: Prostitution in French Art of the Impressionist Era. PDF. The Getty Research Institute. Yale University. pp. 3, 5. . .

By the 1890s, the successful cabaret scene began to experience a downturn due to its eventual exploitation. Le Mirliton closed in 1897, bringing the Montmartre countercultural era to an end. Lautrec moved to Place Pigalle, lower Montmartre, in 1897, residing in an apartment at 15 Av. He sank deeper into the depths of alcohol abuse in his final years, using a hollowed-out walking cane surreptitiously filled with alcohol, complete with a hidden glass, to hide his drinking from his family.Adams, Jad (2004). Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 127–128. . . In March 1899, Lautrec's family had him "kidnapped" while he was drunk to try and treat his alcohol problem. When he awoke, he found himself in a locked room in the Chateau Saint-James asylum. Several months later, he was released, but his health continued to get worse. In 1901, he died at his family home from complications presumably related to alcoholism and tertiary syphilis at the age of 36.Conrad, Barnaby (1988). Absinthe: History in a Bottle. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. pp. 55–58. . . Semaan, Salaam; Des Jarlais, Don C.; Bice, Steve (November 2006). "Sexual health in art and science". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 12 (11): 1782-8.

Development

Toulouse-Lautrec's friendship with singer and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant is thought to have influenced his development of The Hangover. Lautrec explored the then popular theme of women drinking alone in cafes in several works directly related to the lyrics of Bruant's chanson réaliste, songs that touched on the lives of poor working class women, often waitresses or prostitutes, and very often both. Waiting (c. 1887) and A la Bastille (Jeanne Wenz) (1888) are two portraits Lautrec completed based on songs by Bruant featuring the theme of women drinking alone. While The Hangover addresses the same themes found in Lautrec's earlier paintings based on Bruant's songs, and was one of ten works that were permanently exhibited at Bruant's nightclub, many of which were based on Bruant's lyrics, it is debated if The Hangover was based on a specific song or if it was given its title by Bruant. Art historian Gale B. Murray takes a skeptical position, writing "although it had no direct relationship to any of Bruant's lyrics, its picture of alcoholic dissipation and despondency corresponded to the song-writer's vocabulary".Murray, Gale Barbara. (1991). Toulouse-Lautrec: The Formative Years, 1878–1891. Clarendon Studies in the History of Art. New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press. pp. 163–165, 248, 265. . . On the other hand, Frey asserts that Bruant was likely responsible for giving the painting its title.