Still Life with Grapes by Henri Fantin-Latour
While his portraits have gone down in history, Fantin-Latour’s still lifes played a very special role in his career. The painter elevated this ‘minor’ genre to a high level of excellence.
Estimate: €100,000/120,00
“The simplest things, the most banal in appearance, have an interesting character; they must be rendered”, declared Henri Fantin-Latour. The painter has put this into practice with this canvas from 1882. For this sober composition, he chose modest herbs, perhaps a branch of hawthorn, placed in a wicker basket to accompany a glass bowl garnished with white grapes. As typically found in his still lifes, the artist is interested in the contrasting textures of the elements and their ability to reflect light. He makes do with a neutral background, so that nothing stands in the way of this poetic vision. Although Fantin-Latour was influenced by the realist movement, he detached himself from it whenever he could to offer the viewer a dreamy contemplation of the miracle of the living world. Romanticism and a form of modernity, which can be found in his ability to render a fragile, ephemeral nature, are also present in his work. Yet he remained a studio painter, composing his reality with what he found around him, whether in his Paris studio at 8, rue des Beaux-arts, or in the family home of his wife Victoria Dubourg—also a painter of flowers—in Buré, Orne. Although his first arrangements were somewhat opulent, from the mid-1870s onwards Fantin-Latour focused on simpler compositions, combining more diverse but always perfectly chosen elements. This led Zacharie Astruc to say at the 1870 Salon that Fantin-Latour painted “still lifes worthy of Chardin”. A fine and just compliment at a time when this genre was still considered minor in comparison with history painting. A member of the bourgeoisie, the artist felt right at home in the hushed, delicate world of his canvases, as did English high society, which first fell in love with his work. Henri Fantin-Latour regularly traveled to the other side of the Channel, accompanied by his friends the painter Whistler and the art patron-dealer Edwin Edwards, who acted as intermediaries for his loyal and welcome clientel.
Friday 18 October 2024 – 14:00 (CEST) – Live
20, rue Jean-Jaurès – 06400 Cannes
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