Judging from available photos, it is almost certain that the subject was a lounge in a maison close located on rue des Moulins and regarded as one of the most luxurious in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec, himself a frequent patron of this brothel, depicted it several times between 1891 and 1895, often with the same characters. The Couch, magnificently composed in Degas style, features three figures sunk in the immense velvet divan while a fourth character moves out of the visual field.
— Unknown authorship, 1998
