Marcelle Lender (1862 – 27 September 1926) was a French singer, dancer and entertainer made famous in paintings by

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in th ...

.Brocklehurst, Hannah & Foule, Frances (2018), ''Toulouse-Lautrec & the Art of Celebrity'', National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 90–91 Born Anne-Marie Marcelle Bastien, she began dancing at the age of sixteen and within a few years made a name for herself performing at the

Théâtre des Variétés The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7–8, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1974. History It owes its creation to the theatre director Mademoiselle ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. Lender appears in several works by Lautrec but the most notable is the one of her dancing the

Bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

during her February 1895 performance in the

Hervé Hervé is a French masculine given name of Breton origin, from the name of the 6th-century Breton Saint Hervé. The common latinization of the name is Herveus (also ''Haerveus''), an early (8th-century) latinization was '' Charivius''. Anglici ...

operetta '' Chilpéric''. Lautrec's portrait of her in full costume, her flame-

red hair Red hair (also known as orange hair and ginger hair) is a hair color found in one to two percent of the human population, appearing with greater frequency (two to six percent) among people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and ...

accentuated by two red

poppies Poppies can refer to: *Poppy, a flowering plant * The Poppies (disambiguation) - multiple uses *'' Poppies (film)'' - Children's BBC remembrance animation *"Poppies", a song by Patti Smith Group from their 1976 album '' Radio Ethiopia'' *"Poppies", ...

worn like plumes, boosted Lender's popularity considerably after it appeared in a

magazine. The painting was eventually sold to a collector from the United States, and on her death in 1998 the painting's then owner, American Betsey Cushing Whitney, donated it to the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

in Washington, D.C. Image:MlleMarcelleLender1901Paris.jpg, Marcelle Lender 1901 Image:Lautrec mademoiselle marcelle lender (profile) 1895.jpg, Profile of Lender by Lautrec (1895) Image:Lautrec marcelle lender doing the bolero in 'chilperic' 1895.jpg, ''Lender'' by Lautrec

References

1862 births 1926 deaths 19th-century French ballet dancers 19th-century French women singers 20th-century French women singers French artists' models French female dancers French female models Paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Paintings in Washington, D.C. People of Montmartre {{France-dance-bio-stub