Henri Fantin-Latour

Mrs. Edwin Edwards, London

J. Cabruja, Paris (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 20, 1921, lot 13)

F. & J. Tempelaere, Paris

G. Allard

Eugène Cremetti, London

James Connell & Sons, Glasgow

Thomas Guthrie Brownlie, Glasgow (acquired from the above in April 1925)

Mrs. R. W. Millar (by descent from the above and sold: Christie's, London, June 27, 1988, lot 6)

Acquired at the above sale by the late owner

Mme Fantin-Latour, L'Oeuvre complet de Fantin-Latour, Paris, 1911, no. 999, p. 103

 

The painting is in very good condition. Original canvas. Under ultra-violet light there are scattered small specks of inpainting in the background wall. Although there are a number of specks, taken all together they constitute very little surface area.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Fantin-Latour painted this still-life of a basket of roses for his most important patron, Mrs. Edwin Edwards.  Throughout the 1890s, Mrs. Edwards commissioned several pictures of floral arrangements from the artist, many of which depict the lush bouquets of mixed flowers.  This picture, with its crispness and startling realism, demonstrates the best of the artist's expertise in this area.  Around the time he completed this work in 1880, Fantin-Latour had grown weary of this motif and longed to return to portraiture, a genre which had been an important part of his early career.  His patrons like Edwards, however, felt differently.  Until his death in 1904 and at the behest of his clients Fantin continued to paint dozens of compositions of bud vases and elaborate bouquets, all which have come to define his career as an artist.

Because of the extraordinary eye for detail that he had developed as a portrait painter, the artist was capable of seeing each flower with remarkable specificity.  According to Edward Lucie-Smith, "His belief, academic in origin, that technique in painting was separable from the subject to which the artist applied it, enabled him to see the blooms he painted not as botanical specimens, but as things which, though not necessarily significant in themselves, would generate significant art upon the canvas. At the same time, the naturalist bias of the milieu in which he had been brought up encouraged him to try and give a completely objective description of all the nuances of colour and form which he saw in the bouquet he had arranged" (Edward Lucie-Smith, Henri Fantin-Latour, New York, 1977, pp. 22-23).