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Lot Essay
Henri Fantin-Latour was the main champion of flower painting in the Impressionist movement, reviving a genre that had lost popularity in France since the mid-18th century. Other artists of the period favouring floral motifs included Manet, with small painterly works in which peonies were frequently represented; Redon, who used flowers in his translations of visions and dreams; and Van Gogh, most famously with his sunflowers.
Whereas earlier artists had created sumptuous bouquets, often fantasies created from sketches of flowers that bloomed at different times of year, Fantin's floral still lives were painted from life, ranging from small, delicate works which exude the same poetic charm as a Chardin, to much larger creations.
The present lot is a fine example of the former, characterised by its masterful paint treatment, noted by easy and confident brushstrokes. British writer, poet, art critic Edward Lucie-Smith wrote in his biography on the artist in 1977:'If we want to find an equivalent for the texture of Fantin-Latour's rose petals, then surely it is conspicuously there in the draperies of a great Titian portrait such as the so-called 'Laura dei Dianti'. Laura's sleeves, her scarf, and the striped costume of her page remind us at one and the same time of the way in which Fantin reconciles the need to render texture with the need not to go against the nature of the medium he is using, namely oil paint; and of the way in which he actually constructs, by means of the marks he makes with his brush, the complicated structure of the petals'.
This work will be included in Brame & Lorenceaus's forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.
Whereas earlier artists had created sumptuous bouquets, often fantasies created from sketches of flowers that bloomed at different times of year, Fantin's floral still lives were painted from life, ranging from small, delicate works which exude the same poetic charm as a Chardin, to much larger creations.
The present lot is a fine example of the former, characterised by its masterful paint treatment, noted by easy and confident brushstrokes. British writer, poet, art critic Edward Lucie-Smith wrote in his biography on the artist in 1977:'If we want to find an equivalent for the texture of Fantin-Latour's rose petals, then surely it is conspicuously there in the draperies of a great Titian portrait such as the so-called 'Laura dei Dianti'. Laura's sleeves, her scarf, and the striped costume of her page remind us at one and the same time of the way in which Fantin reconciles the need to render texture with the need not to go against the nature of the medium he is using, namely oil paint; and of the way in which he actually constructs, by means of the marks he makes with his brush, the complicated structure of the petals'.
This work will be included in Brame & Lorenceaus's forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.