Together with Bernard and the painters Anquetin and Rachou, Toulouse-Lautrec became a loyal visitor of 'Le chat Noir'. (the black cat) This cabaret was founded at the end of 1881 by the painter Rodolphe Salis on the Boulevard Rochechouart. Salis had changed his working room into this establishment, what he called the black cat by a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. From a bad painter, Salis became a famous performer who had some very famous clients as Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Alphonse Daudet and the bothers De Goncourt.

Salis also had a newspaper with the same name, that became even more important then his cabaret. The newspaper resambled the life and strife of the people at Montmartre, the hill where the vineyards grew near the mountains and where painters, writers, artists but also criminals and prostitutes lived. At that time, Paris was the city of the famous names, a huge magnet where all the powers of Europe were going too. Paris was the place for all possible spirituals.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec felt very good in this kind of envirement. In 'Le Chat Noir', but also in 'Boule Noir' he saw people that fascinated him and that he was imitating like no one else ever did before. In the hard light of the gas-lamps, he observed the rich people with the flower on their vest, lacquer shoes, light handgloves and a walking stick with a golden knob. The brokers and marine officers. The prostitutes and the artists. They all chose for the city of light, Paris, above their own town or city.