Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) Menu at the Palmyra bull. 1897. Lithograph. [250x360mm]. Delteil 211; Adhémar 253; Wittrock 186. Printed in purplish brown. Very fine proof on glazed vellum. Two small remnants of mounting tabs (old postage stamps) at head verso. Very light foxing. Oblique broken fold and tiny tear in lower left corner. Full margins. Extremely rare: according to Wittrock, only 6 proofs of this subject are known, of which only one is in a public collection (Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec). This menu was created for a dinner on July 31, 1897 at the bar "La Souris" (Madame Palmyre's). It shows the French bulldog of the owner, Madame Palmyre. The menu text was inscribed in pen and ink on the proofs used. "Lautrec] increasingly frequented the bars of Montmartre. He particularly liked two of them, "Le Hanneton" and "La Souris", which were frequented exclusively by women. Lautrec has always been interested in lesbians, and he showed a large number of them, starting with La Goulue as early as 1892 [...] he seems to prefer "La Souris", as he calls it (Coquiot, page 65), run by Madame Palmyre, Armande, to "Le Hanneton". Lapparent saw him at "La Souris" enthroned "under the harsh light of electric lamps, surrounded by a dozen soft-fleshed women, dressed in strict hard-collared men's jackets." He certainly met Bottini there, who came to him for inspiration. Palmyre amused him with her retiring gravity, having, he said, "the heart on her hand, she looks like she wants to devour everything". And in June, Lautrec shows Mme Palmyre at "La Souris"; he also shows Palmyre's bulldog, at the head of a menu". (Jean Adhémar, Toulouse-Lautrec, lithographs and drypoints, Paris, Arts et Métiers graphiques, 1965, p. XXVII). The bulldog Bouboule was portrayed by Lautrec in an oil on board in 1897. It is now in the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi. The dog was known to be as patient as his mistress, constantly biting customers' calves.