An exhibition in North Finchley will show the work of world-famous French artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and Matisse. Miriam Craig talks to the curator

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is best known for depicting the decadent nightlife of 19th Century Paris.

The artist takes centre stage in an exhibition at artsdepot, on Tally Ho Corner, consisting of prints selected from the collection of The Courtauld Gallery, in central London.

Woodcuts made by Paul Gauguin during his stay in Tahiti, and sensuous lithographs of female nudes by Henri Matisse, are also among the works included.

Sarah Hyde, who teaches museum studies at The Courtauld Institute of Art, has curated the exhibition. She says: "It focuses on urban life and nightlife, showing subjects like ballet dancers, people on stage, and people in Montmartre cafés, getting drunk and chasing women."

It was in the Montmartre district of Paris, famous for the bohemian lifestyle of those who frequented it, that Toulouse-Lautrec trained as an artist.

Ms Hyde says: "He started going to more and more bars, drawing the people he found there. Women on the stage in the 19th Century were thought of as not quite acceptable in polite society, and were associated with prostitution. But he became friends with many of them.

"He had an illness in his childhood that left him very short in height, so his relationship with women was unusual. They often teased him and joked about his appearance, but he seemed to be on good terms with a lot of women."

One of these women was the singer and dancer Marcelle Lender, who Toulouse-Lautrec, according to one of his friends, went to see 20 times in one operetta.

A print he made of her will be one of the works on display. Ms Hyde says: "It shows her at the high point of her performance, dancing the bolero. She had a very outlandish costume with two enormous pink flowers on her head that deliberately clashed with her red hair.

"You can see how Lautrec, as he always does, has used the stage lighting, which comes upwards onto her face. I also love all the different types of marks he makes in this print."

As a print, this work was part of a popular artform that would not have been confined to art galleries.

Ms Hyde says: "They would have been seen by the public in a different way to paintings. Toulouse-Lautrec, for example, did a lot of illustrations for sheet music, so anyone who bought certain songs would see his work, and prints were also published in magazines."

But at the same time, their medium makes these works more vulnerable than paintings. "Any work on paper will deteriorate if displayed for too long, and will eventually be destroyed, so these prints are often kept in storage," Ms Hyde says.

Manet to Matisse: French Prints from The Courtauld Gallery is on from Friday June 27 until August 3. Entry is free. For more information, call 020 8369 5454. Visitors will receive a two-for-one voucher for The Courtauld Cezannes exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery.