Artwork Information

A celebrated portraitist, Henri Fantin-Latour brought his talent in capturing the personality and essence of people to his floral still-life paintings. Painted with layers of transparent glazes, the pearly pink, soft petals of Fantin-Latour’s 'Roses [Roses]', 1875, seem to exhale their perfume from the canvas. During the course of his highly productive career, Fantin-Latour painted more than 500 bouquets, each of which he picked from his garden and meticulously arranged in his studio.

Although considered the lowliest genre in the French academic system, flower paintings were quite popular in the mid-19th century. So desired were Fantin-Latour’s still-life paintings, the artist painted nothing else between 1864 and 1869. Possibly exhausting the market for still lives in France by 1874 with his prodigious output, Fantin-Latour turned to a more eager and appreciative market in England. His fortunes recovered again in France after 1887, when the Parisian dealer Gustave Tempelaere, who owned this painting, began championing his work.

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