+ Expand
Dimensions: 45.5 by 61cm.
17 7/8 by 24in.
+ Expand
Provenance: Mrs Edwin Edwards, London
J.W. Barnes (1894)
William Robinson
Sale: Christie's, London, 10th May 1929, lot 59A
F. & J. Tempelaere, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Emile Laffon
Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in the 1960s
+ Expand
Literature: Madame Fantin-Latour, Catalogue de l'oeuvre complet de Fantin-Latour, Paris, 1911, no. 1455, listed p. 153 (titled Panier de roses)
Pierre Schneider, 'Henri Fantin-Latour', in Art News Annual XXIV, New York, 1955, illustrated in colour pp. 76-77
+ Expand
Notes: The present work is a beautiful example of Fantin-Latour's favourite subject, that of flowers depicted usually in a vase or, as in the present example, in a woven basket placed on a tabletop. The brightness of the artist's palette highlights the freshness of the flowers, which is further enhanced by the contrast with the brown basket and the monochromatic background. The precision with which he depicted the roses, paying attention to the texture and various colours of individual flowers, displays Fantin-Latour's virtuosity in capturing their ephemeral and fleeting beauty. This technique, which allows the artist to render differences in surface quality of various elements within the traditional genre of still-life, owes much to the Old Masters whose paintings he studied at the Louvre, particularly those by the eighteen-century master Chardin. Fantin-Latour was also influenced by the style of his friends from the Impressionist circle, and Douglas Druick compared his still-lifes with those executed by Edouard Manet:
'Fantin also has shown more interest than Manet in breaking away from the conventions of still-life composition. Where Manet, following tradition, has aligned the various objects on a buffet, parallel to the picture plane, Fantin has looked for an arrangement that, while controlled, suggests the randomness of nature [...] This successful compromise between order and disorder allowed Fantin the best of both worlds' (D. Druick in Fantin-Latour (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1983, pp. 124-24). This truthfulness to nature is beautifully exemplified in the present work in the seemingly casual and spontaneous arrangement of flowers in the basket. The versatility and endless possibilities offered by these flowers provided the artist with an infinite source of inspiration, and the present composition demonstrates the mastery and refinement that he reached in his mature work.
