Sleepless Night

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec experimented with the recently invented technique of lithography. In addition to fine art prints, he often created ephemera, including posters and sheet music—such as this example. It was commissioned as a cover illustration for Nuit Blanche , a poem by Jean Goudezki that was set to music composed by Désiré Dihau, a well-known bassoonist. Désiré Dihau, who composed the music for which Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created this cover illustration, was the artist’s cousin.