Flowers and Fruit

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Flowers and Fruit

Artist Henri Fantin-Latour (French, 1836-1904)

Date1866

Dimensionspainting: 28 3/4 x 23 1/2 in. (73 x 59.6 cm);
framed: 38 1/2 x 33 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. (97.8 x 84.5 x 8.9 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1951.363

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 33

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesFantin-Latour, Mme., Catalogue de l'oeuvre complet (1849-1904) de Fantin-Latour, Paris, 1911, no. 289.

Wittmann, Otto, "L'Art Francais au Musee de Toledo," Connaisance, no. 125, July 1962, pp. 40-47, repr. p. 44, appendix p. 111.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Chiego, W., "Two Paintings by Fantin-Latour," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, XVII, no. 2, 1974, p. 32, p. 27 ff., repr. cover and fig. 3.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 84 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 58, pl 239.

Hoog, Michel, "A propos de l'exposition Fantin-Latour: les fleurs et les poètes," L'oeil, no. 329, Dec. 1982, p. 60, repr. (col.) p. 61.

Pickvance, Ronald, "Paris: Fantin-Latour," Burlington, vol. 125, Feb. 1983, p. 116, repr. fig. 61.

Stewart, Brian, "Fantin-Latour," Journal, National Gallery of Canada, no. 42, March 1983, repr. (col.) cover.

Anderson, Kurt, "Still-Life, Part One: Drawing," Classical Realism Quarterly, vol. 6, no.1, Oct. 28, 1991, repr. p. 6.

Kostenevich, Albert, Hidden Treaures Revealed; Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, New York, 1995, p. 48, fig. 2, p. 50.

Roux, Paul de, Fantin-Latour: figures et fleurs, Paris, 1995, p. 20, repr. (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 131, repr. (col.).

Miura, Atsushi, "The Pictorial World of Henri Fantin-Latour," in Fantin-Latour, 1836-1904, Tochigi, 1998, pp. 59-60, fig. 9, p. 41.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 249, repr. (col.).

Dalon, Laure ed., Fantin-Latour: A fleur de peau, Paris, Reunion des musees nationaux-Grand Palais, 2016, repr. (col) pl. 35.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, London Royal Academy, 1867, no. 583 or 593 ("Fruit").

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Le Fleur, 1930, no. 22, repr.

Memphis, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Fruits and Flowers, 1958, no. 1.

New York, Wildenstein, Birth of Impressionism, 1963, no. 44, repr.

Northampton, Smith College Museum of Art, Henri Fantin-Latour, 1836-1904, 1966, no. 9, repr.

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Chardin and the Still-Life Tradition in France, 1979, no. 20, p. 49, repr. p. 50.

Paris, Grand Palais; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada; San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fantin-Latour, 1982-1983, no. 37, pp. 130-132, repr. p. 131 and (col.) p. 29.

Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Fantin-Latour: de la réalité au rêve, June 29 - October 28, 2007, no. 24, repr. p. 83 (col.).

Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2009.

Lisbon, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian; Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), 2009-2010, no. 26, p. 88 (Span), pp. 236, 265 (Eng), repr. (col.) p. 93.

Paris, Musee du Luxembourg; Grenoble, Musee de Grenoble; Henri Fantin-Latour, September 14, 2016-June 18, 2017.

Label TextThis canvas was painted in June when hydrangeas, ranunculus, and roses are all in bloom. Henri Fantin-Latour’s characteristic diffuse light envelops the forms. The painting achieves subtle and appealing color harmonies with its rich pink, red, orange, yellow, green, and plum brown. Flowers, glass vase, and porcelain bowl are composed of brushstrokes that vary in thickness and hue to evoke texture and volume. For example, thick strokes that depict the white membrane of the orange wedges give way to thinner strokes for their sides, veiling the strong orange pigment beneath. Fantin portrayed three distinct subjects in his paintings: portraits; imaginary compositions reflecting his love of contemporary opera; and still lifes. Only his still lifes, however, were widely successful. Fantin became renowned for his precise rendering of nature, in part a reflection of the mid-19th-century fascination with photography and of the elevation of images of modern life rather than of history, allegory, or exotic places.