How did Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec influence Edvard Munch?

Edvard Munch’s artistic development was significantly influenced by his exposure to the work of Post-Impressionist painters, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, beginning around 1890.1

While Munch experimented with the open brushstrokes characteristic of Impressionism following a trip to Paris in 1889, his contact with the works of Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin helped him move beyond the prevailing naturalist aesthetic of his earlier years. This exposure encouraged Munch to seek a style that could express inner visions rather than merely depicting external nature. Although Munch found Gauguin’s use of the bounding line particularly congenial to his own goals, his engagement with the broader Post-Impressionist movement—which included the graphic and stylistic innovations of artists like Toulouse-Lautrec—was a vital factor in his transition toward the expressive, symbolic style that would eventually define his career.12