
I Know You From Somewhere II
22" x 48"
1986
Collection of Regis Lippert
I thought these four should get to know one another. Toulouse-Lautrec was only twelve when Degas's The Glass of Absinthe was shown at the second Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1876. Fifteen years later, he seemed to pay homage to his hero, Degas, with his own rather more disreputable couple. The first version of my painting has its own neighboring table story. As I showed a photo of it to a friend in a bistro in Trouville, a stranger at the next table leaned over and offered to buy it. I brought it over from New York and delivered it personally. To this day, I don't know whether he liked the humor of it or just thought he was getting copies of a Degas and a Toulouse-Lautrec at a reasonable price. He and the painting then proceeded to do the greatest disappearing act since Houdini. Considering it lost forever, I decided to copy my own copy.
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