A talking print

119 years. This is how old I am already. But thanks to good treatment you can see my age hardly. I was created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who would celebrate his 150^th birthday today. My size is 14 1/2 in. x 11 in. By this time I live in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. I am the print "Portrait Bust of Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender".

 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Portrait Bust of Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender, 1895

I show Marcelle Lender, a French singer, dancer and entertainer who was made famous by the drawings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Just like Toulouse-Lautrec was so Marcelle Lender a protagonist of the bohemians in Paris in 1900. They both lived in the district of Montmartre,

a notorious district in Paris’s 18th arrondissement that held special appeal for a number of the most well-known modern artists. Having preserved its original rural flair, it represented a counter-world to the mundane Paris of the “belle époque.” (SCHIRN Kunsthalle)

I picture Marcelle Lender live on stage. This can be recognized by the yellow flickering light surrounding her. I figure Marcelle a little frivolous, in lateral profile, with fiery red hair and bare-chested. When I was published in a newspaper, this was a scandal -- and made Marcelle Lender famous.

At the moment I am not on show--an exhibition of my creator at the Metropolitan Museum unfortunately just came to an end--but because it is his birthday today, I wanted to take the occasion to congratulate him.