In May 2005, my family met in Chicago at Uncle Rick's house for a reunion. Vicki and I went to the Chicago Art Museum one morning to view the Toulouse Lautrec exhibit. It was fabulous. They organized the exhibit, so that you would learn about Montmartre where he lived, and his friends and enemies, and his lovers and crushes. One part of the exhibit was especially sad. He was addicted to drugs and an alcoholic, and very ill because of his own infirmities. So, he was put into a sanitarium. He earned his "release" from the sanitarium, by painting scenes from the circus from memory. So, the exhibit ended with this room filled, just filled, with fabulous, glorious, over-the-top circus horses! Once he was released, Toulouse went home to be ill and died in his mother's arms. Another great thing about that day was that Vicki and I got lost and we stopped our car and asked this man on the street to give us directions. He was this beautiful Black man -- glorious kind eyes, lovely voice, and just radiating sexiness. He finished his directions and stepped away from the car and Vicki and I just looked at each other a bit speechless. Truly without words. We both were just thinking, "Well, we should just get lost more often!" Anyway, you can read more about this tremendous art show at the following link:
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/toulouseinfo.htm