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FLOWERS
By HENRI FANTIN-LATOUR

FLOWERS
By HENRI FANTIN-LATOUR (1836-1904)
IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON

" To paint the rose," wrote a well-equipped writer on the death of Fantin-Latour, " is not one of the loftiest tasks an artist can set himself, but Fantin did it supremely well, and with such handling and taste as his, a picture of a bunch of Fowers in a vase became undeniably a dignified and delightful work of art." But Fantin was more than a painter of flowers. Those who have studied his " Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Edwards," in the National Gallery, or his portrait-groups "Un Coin de Table" and " A Studio at Batignolles," in the Luxembourg, will agree that Fantin was a worker of high order, and in his handling of colour, equal to the best. If his drawing was, at times, a little uncertain and faulty, it was a defect redeemed by many merits.

In another medium than oil - that of lithography - Fantin further gained appreciation in the world of art. For nearly twenty years he laboured assiduously to revive the lithographer's art, then degraded by commercial use, and yearly produced a number of subjects, regularly exhibited at the Salons, and now prized by the great museums and private collectors. A fine set of proofs is in the possession of the British Museum, Many of his subjects were inspired by the works of Wagner, Schumann, and contemporary composers, all showing that Fantin was poet as well as craftsman. As was once said of him, he " wrapped his soul in music. Then he took his crayons, and with wondrous dexterity drew, for his fellows to see, the visions he heard."

Fantin-Latour was born in 1836, and, after studying painting with his father, entered the studios of Couture and Courbet. He died in 1904, full of years and honour.

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"

Henri Fantin-LaTour
at Wikipedia

Fantin-LaTour Biography
at Olga's Gallery

Famous Paintings in this Series

James Archer My Great Grandmother	Bashkirtseff The Meeting	Bouguereau Charity	John Brett From the Dorsetshire Cliffs
Arnesby Brown The River Bank	Joseph Clark Mother's Darling	John Constable The Hay-Wain	Jean Baptiste Camille Corot The Fisherman's Hut
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot A Flood	Leonardo Da Vinci Monna Lisa	Edouard Detaille The Dream	Henri Fantin-Latour Flowers
Thomas Gainsborough Queen Charlotte	Thomas Gainsborough The Market Cart	Jean Baptiste Greuze The Head of a Girl	Jean Baptiste Greuze Fidelity
James Clark Hook Home With the Tide	Alfred William Hunt Windsor Castle	Josef Israels The Shipwrecked Mariner	B.W. Leader The Stream in Summer-time
Madame Vigee Le Brun Portrait of the Artist	Alphonse Legros A Canal With a Fisherman	Anton Mauve Watering Horses	J.L.E. Meissonier The Cavalier
Sir J.E. Millais Speak! Speak!	Sir J.E. Mallais My First Sermon	George Morland The Reckoning	George Morland The Inside of a Stable
Murillo The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin	Alfred Parsons When Nature Painted All Things Gay	Ralph Peacock The Sisters	Rembrandt Syndics of the Cloth Merchants' Guild
Guido Reni "Ecce Homo"	Sir Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare With Her Infant Son	Briton Riviere The Temptation in the Wilderness	Dante Gabriel Rossetti Day Dreams
John Singer Sargent Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth	Lady Stanley (Dorothy Tennant) His First Offence	Jan Steen Grace Before Meat	Marcus Stone On the Road from Waterloo to Paris
Constant Troyon Watering Cattle	H.S. Tuke "All Hands to the Pumps"	Velazquez King Philip IV. of Spain	S.E. Waller Sweethearts and Wives
Thomas Webster The Smile	Index Famous Paintings Volume 1 Art Gallery	Index Famous Paintings Volume 2 Art Gallery	Index Art Appreciation Lessons