Henri Fantin-Latour: The Complete Story
In France he was the man who painted the group portraits of the avant garde; in England he was the painter of roses. Henri Fantin-Latour had two reputations on two sides of the Channel, and for years each country knew only half of him.
A quiet realist who was friends with the Impressionists but never painted like them, he left both some of the loveliest flower pictures of the century and a priceless record of its great faces.
The painter of roses
Fantin-Latour flower paintings are famous for their soft realism and gentle light, roses and other blooms against plain backgrounds, alive and just about to fade.
They are among the most loved examples of still life painting, and they sold especially well in England, where collectors prized them.
The group portraits of an age
His most ambitious works gather his friends into formal group portraits. A Studio at Les Batignolles shows Manet at his easel surrounded by admirers including Monet and Renoir, the young Impressionist circle captured together.
In Homage to Delacroix he assembled writers and painters around a portrait of the late master. These canvases are documents as much as art, a form of group portrait painting that preserves who mattered in modern French culture.
A dreamer of music
There was a third Fantin-Latour, the romantic. A passionate lover of music, especially Wagner, he made misty prints and paintings of scenes from operas and myth, all swirling figures and soft light.
These dreamy fantasies are a world away from his crisp flowers and sober portraits, the private, poetic side of a careful, modest man.
Famous in two countries for two things
In France his flowers barely sold, and he was known mainly as the painter of the avant garde portrait groups. In England it was the reverse.
His London dealer Edwin Edwards placed almost all of his flower pictures with British collectors, so the English knew him as the great painter of roses and hardly saw the portraits at all. One artist, two fames.
Common questions about Fantin-Latour
What is he known for?
His flower still lifes and his group portraits of the modern French art world.
Was he an Impressionist?
He was friends with them and painted them, but kept his own quiet, realist style.
What is A Studio at Les Batignolles?
A group portrait of Manet painting, surrounded by the young Impressionist circle.
When did he die?
In 1904, in France.
Why the quiet one lasts
Fantin-Latour never sought the spotlight, which is why he is less famous than the friends he painted. Yet his roses still glow in museums worldwide, and his group portraits are how we picture the modern movement gathering its forces, the modest man who recorded the revolution next door.
He married a fellow painter, Victoria Dubourg, who gave up much of her own still life career to support his. Two flower painters under one roof, with only one of the names remembered today. He bridged two worlds and belonged fully to neither the Impressionists nor the old salon, which is partly why he is so easy to overlook and so rewarding to rediscover. His quiet roses and crowded studios are, between them, a complete portrait of an age. Few painters have left so complete a record of the friends who outshone them.