Henri Fantin-Latour

1867 Self-Portrait oil on canvas 64 x 55.2 cm Manchester City Art Galleries, UK

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836 – 1904) was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour in Grenoble, France in 1836. A painter and lithographer, he is best known for his flower paintings, but he produced many other kinds of work, including several group portraits that are important historical documents and show his friendship with leading avant-garde artists and writers.

In spite of his association with such progressive artists, Fantin-Latour was essentially a traditionalist. Much of his later career was devoted to lithography; he greatly admired Richard Wagner and did imaginative lithographs illustrating his music and that of other composers. His wife Victoria Dubourg (1840-1926) was also a painter, mainly of flower pieces.

This is part 3 of a 13-part series on the works of Henri Fantin-Latour. For biographical notes see part 1. For earlier works see parts 1-2 also.

1866 Still Life: Primroses, Pears and Pomegranites oil on canvas 73 x 59.5 cm The Kröller-Müller Museum, The Hoge Veluwe National Park, Netherlands

1867 Duchess de Fitz-James oil on canvas 50.3 x 42.2 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

1867 Madame Ditte black conté crayon, black chalk and blue pastel, stumping and erasure, with touches of white on laid paper 45 x 35 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

1867 Mademoiselle de Fitz-James oil on canvas 51.1 x 42.8 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1867 Marie Yolande de Fitz James oil on canvas 50.2 x 42.2 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

1867 Plate of Fruit oil on canvas 24 x 20 cm Private Collection

1867 Scène d'atelier pencil and charcoal 29.9 x 37.8 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris ©RMN

1867 Édouard Manet oil on canvas 117.5 x 90 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1867-80 Édouard Manet black crayon with touches of charcoal on cream wove paper 39.9 x 31.1 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1867 Édouard Manet pen and ink on wove paper 30.5 x 25.4 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas

1867 The Wedding Feast at Cana (after Paolo Veronese -see below) oil on canvas 169.9 x 250 cm Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

1562c Paolo Veronese "The Wedding Feast at Cana" oil on canvas 660 x 990 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

1868 Apples oil on canvas 5.9 x 14.9 cm

1868 Asters and Fruit on a Table oil on canvas 56.8 x 54.9 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1868 Figure Laying on the Ground, Woman Hovering in the Air, Winged Man coloured pencil and charcoal 22.3 x 30.2 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris ©RMN

1868 Flowers and Fruit oil on canvas Private Collection

1868 Still Life: Dahlias, Grapes and Peaches oil on canvas 51.5 x 49 cm Private Collection

1868 Three Peaches on a Plate oil on paper mounted on canvas 19.7 x 25.7 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1868c Vase of Flowers oil on canvas 35.9 x 27.9 cm Private Collection

1869 A Basket of Plums oil on canvas 13.4 x 18 cm The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK

1869 Bouquet of White Chrysanthemums oil on canvas 24.5 x 26.5 cm Private Collection

1869 Bowl of Peaches oil on canvas Private Collection

1869 Flower-piece oil on canvas 64.1 x 53.9 cm The National Trust for Scotland, UK

1869 Head of a Girl oil on canvas 33 x 27 cm Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

1869 Peaches oil on canvas 19 x 28 cm Private Collection

1869 Still Life (Melon) oil on canvas Private Collection

1869 The Bethrothal, Still Life oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, France

1869 White Rockets and Fruit oil on canvas

1869c Spring Flowers oil on canvas 40 x 33 cm Private Collection

1870 A Bowl Of Fruit oil on canvas Private Collection

A Studio at Batignolles:

Les Batignolles was a district of Paris where Manet and many of the future Impressionists lived. Fantin-Latour, a quiet observer of this period, has gathered around Manet (presented as the leader of the school), a number of young artists with innovative ideas.

From left to right: Otto Schölderer, (a German painter who had come to France to get to know Courbet’s followers), Manet sitting at his easel, Auguste Renoir, Zacharie Astruc, a sculptor and journalist, Emile Zola (the spokesman of the new style of painting), Edmond Maître (a civil servant at the town hall), Frédéric Bazille (who was killed a few months later during the 1870 war, at the age of 26), and Claude Monet.