Maurice Joyant - The Art of Cuisine

Toulouse-Lautrec at Misia and Thade Natansons at Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, 1898

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Contents

In the kitchen, as in his studio, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a free spirit. Ignoring the prevailing taste of his time whenever he saw fit, the artist relished the preparation of unusual, inventive dishes with which he would surprise and delight his guests. In so doing, Lautrec created his very own art of cuisine, a unique and ofttimes unorthodox approach to all matters pertaining to the table. Whether when pairing food and wine at a luncheon, or when recording a recipe, replete with wry humor and clever wit, Lautrec used his creative genius in all he did. He believed that cooking was an art like any other, and Lautrecs endeavors in the kitchen were invariably marked by his fanciful imagination.

The artists novel approach to food, both its preparation and its presentation, is best appreciated when seen within the larger context of Frances evolving food culture in the nineteenth century. Born on November 24, 1864, Lautrec lived and entertained during the final decades of the century that culinary historians have come to regard as the golden age of French gastronomy. A period of increased awareness of and interest in les arts de la table a time of rapid development of the restaurant industry and an era of technological advancements in the kitchen the last century saw unprecedented change in Frances long and distinguished gastronomic history.

From the 1826 publication of La Physiologie du Got, ( The Physiology of Taste ), Brillat-Savarins remarkable meditations on culinary matters, to the 1889 opening of the restaurant Brbant high above Paris in the Eiffel Tower, the French love affair with food was everywhere in evidence. By the end of the century, popular guidebooks would proclaim Paris the capital of the kingdom of pleasures, and Grimod de la Reynire would write of the City of Light: It is indubitably the best place in the world to eat, with its 27,000 cafs and more drinking establishments than any other city in the world.

The construction of Les Halles (1851-54), the great food market in Paris, ensured that the freshest, finest, and most flavorful comestibles, whether delicate white asparagus from Argenteuil or exquisite Belon oysters from Brittany, were readily available to all who desired them and had the means to procure them.

Several key technological developments, too, had an impact on the French kitchen during the nineteenth century. The cast-iron stove, fueled by wood or coal, was introduced, doing away with the need for a brick oven and separate hearth for cooking. Several models of gas stoves made their appearance at mid-century but were not popularized until several decades later. Toward the end of the century, experiments were being carried out involving freezing as a means to preserve food.

The cookbook industry flourished at mid-century, a result, in part, of increased literacy among women and greater freedom of the press. In addition to numerous recipes, cookbooks of the time by Urbain Dubois, Louis Eustache Audot, Baron (Lon) Brisse, and Jules Gouff provided nutritional information; tips on how to clean and polish silver and glassware; notes on the seating of guests at formal dinners; pointers on how to use leftovers; instructions on how to properly carve and serve a variety of meats, poultry, and fish; along with other helpful hints.

The convention of recipe writing during Lautrecs time was also undergoing vast change, and its most ardent supporter was Jules Gouff. A pastry chef by training, Gouff advocated the creation of recipes that would be precise and at the same time easy to follow. Traditionally, the nineteenth-century recipe was only a very general guide (for the experienced home cook) to the preparation of a dish; it frequently lacked standard measurements and cooking time. Gouff applied the same precision necessary for pastry making to all of his recipes, setting a standard for cookbook writers of his time. Lautrecs recipes are not written in a precise manner.

For Lautrec, as for his fellow countrymen, eating well was a priority. Raised to appreciate fine food and drink, the artist was an aristocrat who enjoyed every aspect of fine dining.

He expressed himself in the kitchen with the same delight and fervor as he did in his studio in Montmartre. Heir to the culinary legacy of such gastronomes and master chefs as Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Alexandre Balthazar Grimod de la Reynire, Marie-Antoine Carme, and Urbain Dubois, and a contemporary of Auguste Escoffier, Lautrec chose experimention in the kitchen over the replication of the rpertoire-classic French dishes prepared in accordance with universally accepted guidelines.

Whether cooking for friends or sketching at a brothel, Lautrec would tirelessly pursue his own creative vision. His irrepressible lust for life, which alas in the end proved fatal, flavors the recipes found here. Charming, ironic in tone, inventive, and most appealing, The Art of Cuisine is a significant aspect of the artists joie de vivre.

A LEXANDRA L EAF

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was convinced that cookery is an art. In fact, the art of painting was to him, first of all, an art of living. Thus, even after his withdrawal from society and his familys sporting life, which his illness caused, he became an artist without having to give up all pleasures. Being exceedingly fond of women his drawings of them were vibrating and thrilling, he painted horses with equestrian fervor and exactitude and as he adored good food he invented recipes with as much zest and unerring technique as he would put in decorating a menu card or painting a picture. He imagined a dish as an artistic creation, like writing a poem or dancing a ballet.

Today, Lautrecs fame, the high prices of his paintings, and the austere atmosphere of the museums in which we must view them, come between us and the exciting spontaneity of his masterpieces. They also make us forget that Lautrec enjoyed, in addition to his art, the pleasures of good friends, and good food.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Maurice Joyant had been childhood friends and their intimacy was renewed and deepened during the Montmartre years when Lautrecs fame was growing and when Joyant was director of the same art gallery in Paris which Theo Van Gogh had run before him. Lautrec was, throughout their relationship, the artist and innovator; Joyant, the steadying influence, the protector and, after the painters death, the executor. Joyant created, after Lautrec had died, the Muse Toulouse-Lautrec at Albi, where most of the paintings which were in the artists studio at the time of his death are now assembled.

However, it was their mutual love of food which was the true daily link between these men, rather than the more usual exchange of gifts or letters. In this sense, cuisine is a true memorial to their friendship. Thus, in the last years of his own life, Joyant collected the recipes invented in Lautrecs company, and combined them with the recipes that he and Lautrec had garnered throughout their years of companionship. He embellished the text with the Lautrec drawings and illustrations which illuminated this area of the artists life. The book was published in a limited edition, and was conceived by Joyant as a work of art and as a tribute.