Henri Fantin-Latour

Works online

Works in the TATE collection

The Judgement of Paris’ and other works

Works in the Heritage Museum collection

Asters in a Vase’ and ‘The two sisters’

Although it was the period of the Impressionists for whom, moreover, he had genuine affection, Fantin-Latour’s still lifes, filled with poetry and a little old fashioned, were able to impress the public. However, the choice of this subject was not as innocent as it might seem. In the hierarchy of the genres laid down by the Académie des Beaux-arts in the 17th century, the still life with fruit or flowers was relegated to the lowest level…

For a long time, Wagner’s music was believed to have influenced this painting, unusual in Fantin-Latour’s work. But it seems that here the artist painted a figure purely from his imagination, wreathed in blue mists and shimmering reflections and picked out very freely with light colours. In Fantin-Latour’s exhibition catalogue organised by the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris in 1982-1983, we read: “On the left side of the painting, he uses light effects to create an area of abstraction, with no formal structure or definition, similar to a Turner painting or Monet’s Thaw, whereas he paints the mist with streaks of blue, carmine and yellow mixed directly on the canvas, just like Renoir “…