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Lot Essay
This still life, comprising a densely packed bouquet of narcissus, hyacinths and tulips is one of the especially fine floral compositions that Fantin executed for collectors in London during the mid-1860s, in which he purposely showcased his skills in this genre. These paintings quickly established his reputation in Great Britain, even before his work became well-known in Paris.
At the suggestion of James McNeill Whistler, Fantin first traveled to London in 1859. Fantin frequently mixed with English artists who visited and worked in Paris, including Matthew White Ridley and Frederic Leighton. While in London. Fantin met with Ridley, who introduced him to Edwin Edwards, an etcher and collector who would subsequently become Fantin's close friend and a tireless agent on his behalf in Britain. During a second trip to London in 1861, Fantin visited Edwards in Sunbury, where he began a portrait of Edwards' wife Ruth. A small still-life that Fantin painted during his stay delighted his hosts (Mme Fantin-Latour, no. 179).
Fantin had been considering that he might concentrate more extensively on still-life and especially floral painting, which might prove more lucrative than portrait commissions and enable him to establish a market both in London and Paris that would provide a steady, reliable income. Fantin painted his flower-pieces, however, as more than a practical means to a financial end; he was quick to appreciate that these efforts taught the artist, as he stated, "persistence before nature," enabling him to understand the "laws of harmony," as well as the principles of "arrangement, disposition, composition" that governed the appearance of visual phenomena and form in the natural world (quoted in Fantin Latour, exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1982, pp. 114 and 120).
Encouraged by the acceptance of two of his still-lives in the annual Royal Academy exhibition of 1862 in London, Fantin proceeded with his plan, and his floral paintings soon began to attract considerable interest and eager buyers among British collectors. Edwards served as a go-between, and Whistler, who had purchased several of his still-lives, also assisted in obtaining important commissions for Fantin among his English clientele, and for a while, from members of the wealthy Greek mercantile community in London.
While there was no response to the first floral still-life painting that Fantin exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1866, and his plans for a French market failed to materialize, the artist's reputation had been spreading quietly among a small circle of fellow painters and critics in the Batignolles group associated with Edouard Manet. In 1863, not long before the present work was painted, the critic Zacherie Astruc wrote "In order to reveal this painter's talent in all its freshness, charm and strength, one must, after a thorough consideration of his large pictures, turn to his flower paintings, so highly regarded in the art world. These are marvels of color and artistic sensibility. They are as compelling as they are charming, in fact one may even call them moving. There are tonal rhythms, freshness, abandon, surprising vivacity. Their beauty captivates. This is nature with all... that fleeting radiance that is the fate of flowers. Delicacy of expression being the essence of his art, Fantin seems to be the visual poet of flowers" (ibid., p. 114).
At the suggestion of James McNeill Whistler, Fantin first traveled to London in 1859. Fantin frequently mixed with English artists who visited and worked in Paris, including Matthew White Ridley and Frederic Leighton. While in London. Fantin met with Ridley, who introduced him to Edwin Edwards, an etcher and collector who would subsequently become Fantin's close friend and a tireless agent on his behalf in Britain. During a second trip to London in 1861, Fantin visited Edwards in Sunbury, where he began a portrait of Edwards' wife Ruth. A small still-life that Fantin painted during his stay delighted his hosts (Mme Fantin-Latour, no. 179).
Fantin had been considering that he might concentrate more extensively on still-life and especially floral painting, which might prove more lucrative than portrait commissions and enable him to establish a market both in London and Paris that would provide a steady, reliable income. Fantin painted his flower-pieces, however, as more than a practical means to a financial end; he was quick to appreciate that these efforts taught the artist, as he stated, "persistence before nature," enabling him to understand the "laws of harmony," as well as the principles of "arrangement, disposition, composition" that governed the appearance of visual phenomena and form in the natural world (quoted in Fantin Latour, exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1982, pp. 114 and 120).
Encouraged by the acceptance of two of his still-lives in the annual Royal Academy exhibition of 1862 in London, Fantin proceeded with his plan, and his floral paintings soon began to attract considerable interest and eager buyers among British collectors. Edwards served as a go-between, and Whistler, who had purchased several of his still-lives, also assisted in obtaining important commissions for Fantin among his English clientele, and for a while, from members of the wealthy Greek mercantile community in London.
While there was no response to the first floral still-life painting that Fantin exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1866, and his plans for a French market failed to materialize, the artist's reputation had been spreading quietly among a small circle of fellow painters and critics in the Batignolles group associated with Edouard Manet. In 1863, not long before the present work was painted, the critic Zacherie Astruc wrote "In order to reveal this painter's talent in all its freshness, charm and strength, one must, after a thorough consideration of his large pictures, turn to his flower paintings, so highly regarded in the art world. These are marvels of color and artistic sensibility. They are as compelling as they are charming, in fact one may even call them moving. There are tonal rhythms, freshness, abandon, surprising vivacity. Their beauty captivates. This is nature with all... that fleeting radiance that is the fate of flowers. Delicacy of expression being the essence of his art, Fantin seems to be the visual poet of flowers" (ibid., p. 114).