Still Life with Roses and Fruit, Henri Fantin-Latour.
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use Fullscreen link and Zoom or download arrow.
Though I also admire Fantin-Latour’s mature work, I just love the painterly quality of this early still life — a wonderful study in brushwork and edges.
To my thinking, there is a direct line from this to the later painterly still life paintings of American Impressionists like William Merritt Chase and Abbott Handerson Thayer.
Link: Still Life with Roses and Fruit, Henri Fantin-Latour
What does brushwork and edges mean?
Any idea what these early still lifes are worth, Charley?
Fantin is my #1 Flowerman.
Wish my Mum was still around to see. She painted flowers in watercolours at college.
Interesting to see the close up detail on this painting!
By brushwork, I mean the way he has used the marks left by the brush, showing textures in the paint left by the bristles, to define the form and give the painting a textural quality.
By edges, I’m referring to the edges of forms and the way they are made soft (as in the left side of the pear, or hard (as in the edges of some of the flower petals) to lead your eye and give the painting definition.
No idea offhand of Fantin-Latour paintings value. If you search Christie’s or Sotheby’s back lots, you may be able to find some.
Thanks, Charley. I’m much obliged to you.
In my quest to learn more about Fantin-Latour I stumbled at the following link: http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/biog/display/?bid=Fant_IH
His British agent was Elizabeth Ruth Edwards, née Enscombe.
I would like to know what his palette was made up of. Do you have any information on this?
Thanks!