Oil painting entitled 'Dahlias' by Henri Fantin-Latour. France, 1877.

Dahlias, iris, hydrangeas and other flowers silhouetted against a dark plain background

Bequeathed by Henry Louis Florence

G. Tempelaere, Paris; Henry L. Florence; bequeathed to the museum in 1917.

Historical significance: This painting, which shows a bouquet of dahlias, iris, hydrangeas, typical of Fantin-Latour's output, may surprise by its dark palette and the lack of contrast between light and shade. Although signed and dated, this painting does not seem to appear in the catalogue raisonné of the artist. The last digit of the date (upper left) is hardly distinguishable and could either be '7' or '1'. However an oil on canvas entitled Bouquet de dahlias with no other reference is listed no. 546.

The attribution of this painting has been controversial since its bequest to the museum. The flowers are depicted in similar warm and dark tones whereas Fantin usually shows a greater sensitivity for the rendering of different textures and colours. In this respect it differs from the other Fantin's flowers pieces at the V&A (see CAI.128, CAI.129, CAI.130, S.Ex.61-1882, S.Ex.24-1884 and S.Ex.4-1889).

However, this painting was acquired by the donor in Paris from the art dealer Gustave Tempelaere (1840-1904) (his stamp on the back), who met Fantin in 1887 at the funeral of a mutual friend, the painter François Bonvin, Tempelaere became Fantin's agent in Paris. Tempelaere had opened a gallery at 28, Rue Laffitte, in October 1868, and was also associated with the work of Courbet, Corot and Daubigny.

The Barbizon School and the Impressionists engendered a new interest for naturalism and the objective rendering of light and colours. However, Fantin-Latour did not share their enthusiasm for open air painting and most of his compositions were executed in his studio.

19th-century French art is marked by a succession of movements based on a more or less close relationship with nature. At the beginning of the century, Romantic artists were fascinated by nature they interpreted as a mirror of the mind. They investigated human nature and personality, the folk culture, the national and ethnic origins, the medieval era, the exotic, the remote, the mysterious and the occult. This movement was heralded in France by such painter as Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). In its opposition to academic art and its demand for a modern style Realism continued the aims of the Romantics. They assumed that reality could be perceived without distortion or idealization, and sought after a mean to combine the perception of the individual with objectivity. This reaction in French painting against the Grand Manner is well represented by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) who wrote a 'Manifesto of Realism', entitled Le Réalisme published in Paris in 1855. These ideas were challenged by the group of the Barbizon painters, who formed a recognizable school from the early 1830s to the 1870s and developed a free, broad and rough technique. They were mainly concerned by landscape painting and the rendering of light. The works of Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña (1807-1876), Jules Dupré (1811-1889), Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), Constant Troyon (1810-1865) and Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) anticipate somehow the plein-air landscapes of the Impressionists.

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) was born in Grenoble and first trained with his father, Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1805-75), and then with Horace Lecocq de Boisbaudran at the Petite Ecole de Dessin in Paris from 1850 to 1856. In 1861 he worked in Gustave Courbet's studio for several months as a pupil. After a period of portraiture, Fantin-Latour concentrated on flowers paintings and still-lifes for which he is now best known. His flower pieces were especially popular with British collectors, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1862 onwards, especially thanks to the patronage of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), whom he met in 1858.

This painting depicts a bouquet of dahlias, iris and hydrangeas silhouetted against a dark neutral background. This subject matter is characteristic of Fantin-Latour's output, which includes up to 500 floral compositions. Although Fantin usually played with the contrast between light and shade, he focused here his attention on the rich combination of similar textures and tones. These effects of light and colour are characteristic of the new naturalism developed in French art in the second half of the 19th century, which anticipate the Impressionists' new experimentations.

P.47-1917