Henri Fantin-Latour

Sale: Manzi, Joyant & Cie, Paris, December 13, 1919, lot 53
F. & J. Tempelaere
Alex Reid, Glasgow
Lady Trent
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Acquired from the above in 1962

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Fantin Latour Flower Paintings, 1962, no. 1, illustrated in the catalogue

Canvas is lined and buckled on its stretcher. Surface is covered with a thick layer of very slightly yellowed varish. Impasto of the flowers is well preserved. Some light surface scratches to top left edge of composition and some minor frame abrasion has occurred to the extreme left edge of the composition. Under UV light a line of inpainting along the left edge of the leftmost flower fluoresces, though the varish is otherwise difficult to read through and no other restorations are clearly visible. Work is in good condition and would benefit greatly from the canvas being restretched and relined.
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.

Painted in late 1861, this assorted bouquet of roses, peonies, irises and larkspur was created a decade before Fantin-Latour truly began to achieve financial and critical success as a painter of still-lifes. After the siege of Paris in 1870, the Englishman Edwin Edwards regularly bought from the artist and thereby provided him with monetary security as well as exposure in England, and it was Edwards who ensured that he was shown at the Royal Academy in their annual exhibitions. Although Fantin-Latour exhibited his floral still-life paintings at the Royal Academy in 1864, it was not until the early 1870s that he solidified his reputation as the key painter of this genre. During the 1860s the artist had turned away from portraiture in favor of still-life because the subject allowed a greater degree of experimentation with color, texture, form and composition. “Fantin’s flower-pieces 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’ “(Edward Lucie-Smith, Henri Fantin-Latour, New York, 1977, p. 22).

Fleurs is a quintessential example of the artist’s paintings of this time, which were marked by naturalism, purity and simplicity of composition. Moreover, Fantin-Latour frequently employed a palette of whites, yellows and pinks as he has in the present work for the luminous quality these colors impart on the canvas. Urged on by the example and influence of James McNeill Whistler, Fantin-Latour experimented in the subtlest possibilities of chromatic harmonies, thus simplifying dramatically the structure of his pictures. Later in his career he abandoned his earlier, more ambitious compositions in favor of the more classically understated flower compositions, particularly appreciated by his English collectors, and thus the present work is a rare and important example of the artist's early oeuvre.