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As part of our #MetAccess program, every month we invite Disabled and Deaf artists to respond to works in The Met collection that spark curiosity or inspiration. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣

⁣Today artist Lizzy De Vita (@lizzy_de_vita) shares their perspective on Toulouse-Lautrec's 1890s work "The Sofa":⁣

“I’m chronically ill and spend lots of time in bed resting, but also working, socializing and doing a whole lot of living. Disabled writer and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarsinha has written that part of 'crip emotional intelligence'...'is understanding beds are worlds.' I think about this idea a lot. ⁣

In looking at this painting, it occurred to me that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who lived with chronic illness and disability, might have had his own radically expansive ideas about beds and other places of rest. Here, he transforms his modest indoor studio into a lush garden-like landscape. The scattered brushstrokes making up the studio floor and wall suggest grass and wildflowers. The 'sofa' is sprawling, deep, like a blanket or bed. ⁣

Though the setting lends itself to interpretation, I'm drawn to how unremarkable this moment is. It is a quiet glimpse of a couple at rest--just being and being together. Rest is frequently shown as something extra. Laziness or luxury. In the world of this painting, rest is both ordinary and necessary: like breathing, like love. Ordinary and also brimming with potential for new worlds.”⁣

🎨 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901). The Sofa, ca. 1894–96. Oil on cardboard. On view in Gallery 817. @meteuropeanpaintings