Girona and Albi Exchange Paintings by Miró and Toulouse-Lautrec in Two Simultaneous Exhibitions to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Their Twin City Relationship

Friday, December 5, 2025

A total of thirteen works by the Catalan artist from the Girona City Council's collection will be exceptionally loaned to the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, and six works by the French artist will be exhibited in Girona The exhibition in the city of Girona will be open from December 11 to March 8 and will include various parallel activities such as lectures and a guided tour

This year, Girona and Albi celebrate the 40th anniversary of their twinning, and to commemorate this milestone, paintings by Joan Miró and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec will be exchanged in two simultaneous exhibitions in both cities, which will be open from December to March.

In Girona, the exhibition titled “Un far entre dos mons. Six works from the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi visit Girona” will be inaugurated today at 6 p.m. at the Museum of History. This exhibition, curated by cultural journalist Eva Vázquez, will showcase works by Toulouse-Lautrec such as “Champ de course” (1881), “Femme couchée les bras levés” (1894), and “Madame Pascale au piano” (1894).

At the Girona Museum of History, six works by the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Albi, 1864-Sent Andriu dau Bòsc, 1901) have been loaned exceptionally from the museum of his hometown. These will be on display on the third floor of the museum from December 11 to March 8, Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sundays and holidays from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The half-dozen works by the French artist will allow the public to explore some of the themes forged in the Parisian melting pot, from the renewed gaze at natural and urban landscapes to the emergence of new intimacies and visual strategies inspired by mass culture, and to relate them to around forty works by Catalan artists who were influenced by them, part of the Girona City Council's collection.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a post-impressionist artist who captured the ephemeral, luminous, and dynamic effects offered by late 19th-century Paris: from its cafés, cabarets, theaters, and circuses, which he immortalized in unforgettable posters, to the bustling spectacle of street life. While many of his fellow artists depicted the popular entertainment scene from the perspective of infiltrated bourgeoisie, Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed singers, dancers, and prostitutes as they were—frenetic and radiant on stage, disheveled and exhausted in private. This aristocratic-born painter, who gave up his class privileges to immerse himself in the bohemia of Montmartre, was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. his style is considered unique and original, marked by simple shapes, elemental colors, and experimentation with new materials. Among the works loaned by Girona, notable pieces include three drawings from 1917, the work “Family” (1950), the engraving “Homage to Joan Prats” (1971), and the piece “Homage to Carles Rahola” (1976), part of an action and exhibition organized by the ADAG (Democratic Assembly of Artists of Girona).

In Albi, Joan Miró's works will be exhibited in the second-floor modern art gallery of the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum from December 6 to March 8, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. In addition to the exhibition, the Girona Museum of History has organized several parallel activities surrounding the show dedicated to Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.