Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born into an aristocratic family in the south of France in 1864. His father Count Alphonse was a notorious eccentric known for all kinds of unpredictable behavior: from washing his socks in the river (unheard of for an aristocrat!) to galloping off to a hunt wearing outlandish costumes to simply disappearing for long stretches of time. The young Henri never became very close to him.