Rare painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to be auctioned in Paris on June 29

CAIRO – 15 June 2021: A painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec dating back to 1891 will be auctioned in Paris in June. Its price is estimated between €600,000 and €900,000.

The auction is set to take place on June 29 during the sale of modern art at the Paris auction house Artcurial.

Rare painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Social media

The painting depicts a surgery taking place in a Paris hospital. The work is gifted by the artist to the physician Friedrich Baumgarten, who is shown standing in the background of the center observing the surgery.

The painting has been owned by the Baumgarten family for 130 years. Because of its rarity, the auction house expects the work to exceed its estimates, Bruno Joubert, Artcurial Director of Impressionist and Modern Art, said in a statement.

The central figure who performs the operation is a doctor named Jules-Émile Péan. Péan is portrayed in all black, with his back to the viewer and flanked by a nurse, an assistant, and several other doctors studying the operation.

Toulouse-Lautrec painted only two other scenes depicting hospitals. He suffered from multiple medical illnesses throughout his life, including a genetic disorder that stunted his growth.