Toulouse-Lautrec Painting Sets Record at Auction

An early painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec has set the auction record for his work, selling to an anonymous buyer for $22.4m (£13m) at Christie's in New York.

Toulouse-Lautrec painted La blanchisseuse when he was just 23 years old, three years after the artist moved to Montmartre and before he started to produce posters of dancers and music-hall stars in the distinctive graphic style for which he is best known. The subject is of one of the Paris laundresses who would often work as prostitutes by night. Toulouse-Lautrec died young: racked by syphilis and mental breakdowns, he was confined to a sanatorium in 1899 and died two years later.

The painting, dated 1886-7, was part of a private collection.