A French Icon: Toulouse-Lautrec’s Childhood Home

Fans of Toulouse-Lautrec’s art shouldn’t miss the Château du Bosc, in Aveyron, where he drew as a child.

When Nicole Tapié de Celeyran Toulouse-Lautrec’s great-grandniece and occupant of the family’s iconic Château du Bose in Camjac, Aveyron, passed away in 2016, aged 91, the last tangible thread tying the great post-Impressionist artist to the modern world seemed forever severed. Nicole, as she preferred to be called despite her nobility, had been a passionate keeper of Henri’s flame, proudly welcoming visitors to the family home between Albi and Rodez, showing them the rooms in which he had played and slept during childhood summers and pointing to some of his earliest sketches, framed on the walls.

A legal dispute later ruled in favour of the home being inherited as per the old lady’s wishes – by a couple she had befriended just a year before her death. In 2021, they were accused (in a civil suit) and then cleared of fraud and abuse of weakness and trust by 15 other family descendants who are claiming ownership of the 12th-century estate, which is valued at more than €1m. An appeal is under way.

The château, square-shaped around a central courtyard, was formerly a keep built by Bérenger du Bose in 1180, and became a medieval fortress with moat and drawbridge. In the mid-19th century it was transformed into an appealing family home under the guidance of Countess Gabrielle de Toulouse-Lautrec, the painter’s grandmother.

I was fortunate to enjoy a couple of hours in Nicole’s jolly company many years ago, and the place was somehow imbued with Henri’s soul thanks to her. She would refer to him as oncle Henri (Uncle Henri) though she never actually met him (he died in 1901) – and Nicole once said that his “shadow hangs over the place with a certain permanence”. The couple who (some say controversially) inherited the bucolic property, Corinne and Jean-Claude Putzola, are seeing to it that this ‘permanence’ does not fade, maintaining Bosc’s expensive renovation and upkeep, preserving its museum elements and providing year-round guided tours.

In 2021, it was awarded the Qualité Tourisme Occitanie Sud de France label for tourism excellence. Don’t miss the superb 17th-century Aubusson tapestries and other rich furnishings, or the toise (growth chart) that measured all family members from 1850 onwards. Putting material evidence of Henri’s childhood aside, his personal reputation continues to fascinate, albeit as a booze-addicted, brothel-frequenting bon viveur… not to mention an excellent chef. Equally compelling are his eclectic artistic offerings, from early horse portraits and caricatures to the iconic posters depicting the debauched Montmartre nightlife that would eventually trigger his downfall, via alcoholism and syphilis, aged just 36. The man and the art are inextricably intertwined.

It is generally accepted that Henri’s initial weakness for beer and wine was fuelled by frustration with his limited stature and reliance on a cane to walk, a result of genetics and bone breaks, the first being his left femur after slipping from a chair in the Bose’s lounge in 1878. That he later turned the party dial up to 11 by downing explosive cocktails such as the famous Tremblement de Terre (The Earthquake), a potent blend of absinthe and cognac, points to wilder intentions for the partying poster-boy of Montmartre. Henri’s place at art’s top table will surely not be sullied by unseemly legal proceedings at his childhood playground. At Château du Bosc it all started so innocently but who knows… his rebellious streak may even have quite enjoyed such a fuss.

en.chateaudubosc.com

From France Today Magazine