Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)

Roses dans un vase de verre

Details

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)
Roses dans un vase de verre
signed 'Fantin' (lower left)
oil on canvas
15 x 17 in. (38.7 x 45.1 cm.)

Provenance

Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 22 May 1982, lot 431.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Muse Rodin, Paris, 1944, no. 71 (the marble version illustrated).
C. Goldscheider, Rodin, sa vie, son oeuvre, son hritage, Paris, 1962, p. 49 (the marble version illustrated).
A. E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 62 (another cast illustrated p. 63).
B. Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, p. 157 (the plaster version illustrated pls. 78-79).
R. Descharnes and J. F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 131 (the marble version illustrated).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Auguste Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 100 (the marble version illustrated pls. 54-55).
L. Goldscheider, Rodin Sculptures, London, 1970, no. 49 (the marble version illustrated).
J. L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 72, 90 and 108 (the marble version illustrated p. 77).
J. de Caso and P. B. Sanders, Rodin's Sculpture, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 148-152 (another cast illustrated pp. 148 and 150).
N. Barbier, Marbres de Rodin: Collection du Muse, Paris, 1987, p. 184, no. 79 (the marble version illustrated p. 185).
F. V. Grunfeld, Rodin, A Biography, New York, 1987, pp. 187-190, 221-222, 260, 262, 275-276, 281-282, 342, 373-374, 400, 457 and 577.
P. Kjelberg, Les bronzes du XIXe sicle, Paris, 1987, p. 585 (another cast illustrated).
D. Finn and M. Busco, Rodin and his Contemporaries: The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Collection, New York, 1991, p. 60 (another cast illustrated; detail of another cast illustrated p. 61).

Lot Essay

Roses dans un vase de verre is a classic example of Fantin-Latour's contribution to late 19th Century painting in France. Whilst his fellow Impressionists, following Corot and the Barbizon school, focused on nature in its broadest sense and revolutionised the academic rendition of landscape, Fantin accepted nature only in its tamest form, indoors. Within the quiet compass of the still-life, Fantin experimented with new chromatic suggestions, playing on the contrasts between the neutral background and the full bloom of the flowers. In the present oil, Fantin's exquisite sense of colour finds a fine expression in the juxtaposition of the roses - from the sensual, fully open flowers to the chaste rosebuds, in a chromatic crescendo culminating in the dark red petals of the central roses, splendidly contrasting the opalescent hues dominating the composition.

This painting will be included in the catalogue raisonn of Fantin-Latour's paintings and pastels by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau now in preparation.

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