Henri Fantin-Latour, Pt. 7

"Narcisses in an Opaline Glass Vase" by Fantin-Latour

 

 "Henri Fantin-Latour's flower paintings have a special quality which is well summed up in Jacques-Emile Blanche's description of them: 'Fantin studied each flower, its grain, its tissue, as if it were a human face.'" 

"The pictures of flowers were, for the most part, painted in an atmosphere rather different from that which prevailed in Fantin's Paris studio. His wife had a small country property at Bure in Lower Normandy, and it was there that the couple went every June, after the excitement of the Salon was over. Fantin, who liked old, rather neglected cottage gardens, was there able to make a wide choice of summer blooms." 

"The flowers he painted cover almost the whole range available to the not too ambitious mid- and late-nineteenth century gardener. They occur in mixed bunches, as vases or sprays of one variety only, and occasionally as single blooms laid on some surface. The flower which occurs most often is the rose, usually the large, opulent varieties which were then especially liked. There is an emphasis on whites, yellows, and pinks, and on pastel shades in general, perhaps chosen because of their luminosity." 

"In his own lifetime Fantin was renowned for his skill in arranging his bouquets, and almost the best known anecdote about him is the one which concerns the lady who wanted to take lessons from him, not in painting but in flower arrangement." 

To be continued...

(Excerpts are from "Henri Fantin-Latour" by Edward Lucie-Smith.)