La Melinite (The Explosive)

Jane Avril was a cabaret dancer and performer during late 19th century Paris. She was an artist, then studying in Paris, and performing almost nightly at places like The Moulin Rouge and Le Jardin de Paris.

William Rothstein described her as "a wild, Botticelli-like creature, perverse, but intelligent, whose madness for dancing induced her to join this strange company". The Englishman, Arthur Symons added that Jane Avril had "the beauty of a fallen angel. She was exotic and excitable!"

In 1893, Symons caught Avril's performance at The Moulin Rouge,. and wrote the following account some years later:

She danced before the mirror, the orange-rosy lamps. The tall, slim girl; the vague distinction of her grace; her candid blue eyes; her straight profile. She wore a tufted straw bonnet, a black jacket, and a dark blue serge skirt - white bodice opening far down a boyish bosom. Always arm in arm with another jolly girl who also sized my arm for the invariable reason of giving them drinks. The reflections - herself with he unconscious air, as if no one were looking - studying herself before the mirror. She had a perverse genius, besides which she was always adorable and excitable, morbid and sombre, biting and stinging; a creature of cruel moods, of cruel passions; she had the reputation of being a lesbian; and apart from this and from her fascination, never in my experience of such women have I known anyone who had such an absolute passion for her own beauty. She danced before the mirror under the gallery of the orchestra because she was "folle de son corps". She was so incredibly thin and supple in body that she could turn over backward - at Salome when she danced before Herod and Herodias - until she brushed the floor with her shoulders.

Jane Avril and Toulouse-Lautrec

If there was one person you could expect to see on the streets of Montmartre at night, it was no doubt Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Lautrec frequented The Moulin Rouge so often, that he had a special table permanently reserved for him and his guests. It was in the Moulin Rouge that he met Jane Avril.

While Jane was truly a success story in Paris, her life wasn't always easy. Born out of wedlock, and forced through a violent childhood, she ran away at a young age to work at the Hippodrome at the Place de l'Alma. She also ended up working as a cashier at the 1889 Paris Exposition! It was during this time that she was diagnosed as having chorea, a disease affecting her nervous system, resulting in involuntary muscle movements.

Avril's love of art, and close understanding of Lautrec's own problems, coupled with Lautrec's "fascination" of Avril, brought them closer together. Over the next few years, Lautrec would paint the likeness of Jane Avril many times. Legend has it that, while only friends, they once had an intimate encounter. It is likely that this did indeed occur, and that Lautrec became enamored with Avril, painting her obsessively.

Jane Avril and Toulouse-Lautrec

If there was one person you could expect to see on the streets of Montmartre at night, it was no doubt Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Lautrec frequented The Moulin Rouge so often, that he had a special table permanently reserved for him and his guests. It was in the Moulin Rouge that he met Jane Avril.

While Jane was truly a success story in Paris, her life wasn't always easy. Born out of wedlock, and forced through a violent childhood, she ran away at a young age to work at the Hippodrome at the Place de l'Alma. She also ended up working as a cashier at the 1889 Paris Exposition! It was during this time that she was diagnosed as having chorea, a disease affecting her nervous system, resulting in involuntary muscle movements.

Avril's love of art, and close understanding of Lautrec's own problems, coupled with Lautrec's "fascination" of Avril, brought them closer together. Over the next few years, Lautrec would paint the likeness of Jane Avril many times. Legend has it that, while only friends, they once had an intimate encounter. It is likely that this did indeed occur, and that Lautrec became enamored with Avril, painting her obsessively.