press release Fantin

press release
Fantin-Latour
À fleur de peau
14 September 2016 – 12 February 2017
Musée du Luxembourg
19 rue Vaugirard, 75006 Paris
This exhibition is organised by the Réunion des Musées
Nationaux – Grand Palais and the musée de Grenoble in
partnership with the musée d’Orsay.
It will be presented from 18 March to 18 June 2017 at the
musée de Grenoble.
As the first retrospective of the work of Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) in Paris since the landmark exhibition
on the artist at the Grand Palais in 1982, this exhibition will illuminate the most emblematic works from an
artist who is principally known for his still lifes and group portraits, and will also reveal the important place in
his oeuvre of the so-called «imaginative» paintings.
Very attached from his youth to the faithful reproduction of reality, Fantin-Latour also explored, with great
relish, a more poetic vein approaching that of the Symbolists. The exhibition offers a rich panorama that
includes over one hundred and twenty works, paintings, lithographs, drawings and other preparatory studies.
Organised chronologically, the exhibition opens with the artist’s youthful endeavours, particularly the unsettling
self-portraits that he painted between 1850 and 1860. Confined to his studio, Fantin-Latour took inspiration
from his intimate circle: as captive models, he painted his two sisters reading and embroidering, while his
skilfully executed still lifes from the 1860s already demonstrate the young artist’s exceptional powers of
observation.
The seismic development that took place in the decade between 1864 and 1872, Fantin-Latour’s defining
period, are on display in the second part of the exhibition. Imbued with great ambition, the young artist was
working intensely, innovating with panache in the field of group portraiture. With Hommage à Delacroix, the
first of his great group portraits, he took his place in the lineage of a certain type of modernity, alongside
Delacroix and Manet. With Le Toast (1864-1865), Un atelier aux Batignolles (1870) and Coin de table (1872),
he intensified his work to the point of a manifesto.
The third part of the exhibition presents the series of still lifes and portraits that the artist painted between
1873 and 1890. With the exception of portrait commissions, which gradually became scarcer in his work, the
artist himself described the majority of these paintings as «studies from nature». The sumptuous portraits
of flowers that he went on to paint by the dozen demonstrate a rare talent for the composition of bouquets
as well as an exceptional virtuosity in capturing textures. His portraits, whether posed or more intimate, also
illustrate an acute observational sense.
Henri Fantin-Latour, La Lecture (detail), 1877, oil on canvas, 97 x 130 cm, Lyon, Musée des beaux-arts, Photo Alain Basset
Nevertheless, the artist gradually loses interest in portraits and still lifes as we move into the fourth part of the
exhibition. «I do what I please»: with these words, written in a letter to Edwards in 1869, Fantin-Latour was
describing his so-called «imaginative» works that took increasing prominence in his oeuvre over the years.
Nourished by his passion for music, inspired by mythological subjects or odes to the beauty of the female
body in the guise of chaste allegories, these works reveal a less well-known side to the artist.
Between the austerity of the family portraits, the richness of his still lifes and the fantasy of the imaginative
paintings, a highly subtle portrait of the artist is revealed, whose complex personality is demonstrated by the
extensive correspondence that he maintained with a number of friends and artists at the time. The exhibition
also innovates by dedicating a room to Fantin-Latour’s creative process, based around L’Anniversaire, painted
in 1876, presented alongside paintings, drawings and lithographs that were reworked several times. This
retrospective also provides an opportunity at last to put on public display a collection of unseen photographs,
a true repertoire of forms for the artist.
Other than shining a light on the traditionally minor genre of still life, which the artist developed into genuine
floral portraits, the exhibition wishes to paint a picture of the artist as engaged with the questions of his day,
between a passion for the real and a desire for escape, who imposed himself, for all his discretion, as a
pivotal figure in his century.
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curators: Laure Dalon, curator for the Rmn – Grand Palais, assistant to the Scientific Director; Xavier Rey,
curator for the musée d’Orsay, and Guy Tosatto, director of the musée de Grenoble.
.......................................
opening: daily from 10:30am to 7pm,
late opening on Fridays to 10pm.
published by Réunion des Musées
Nationaux – Grand Palais, 2016:
prices: €12, concessions €8.50
(16-25 years, jobseekers and large
families), Special Youth rate: €8.50
for two admissions (from Monday to
Friday after 17:00), free for under-16s,
benefit recipients
- exhibition catalogue, 22,5 x 26 cm,
256 pp., 240 ill., €35
press contacts:
Réunion des musées
nationaux - Grand Palais
254-256 rue de Bercy
75577 Paris cedex 12
- exhibition album, 21 x 24 cm,
48 pp., 45 ill., €10
Florence Le Moing
[email protected]
01 40 13 47 62
access: Métro: St Sulpice or Mabillon
RER B Luxembourg
Bus: 58; 84; 89; stop at Musée du
Luxembourg / Sénat
- exhibition e-album, for digital tablets,
€4.99
Sandrine Mahaut
[email protected]
01 40 13 48 51
@Presse_RmnGP
information and reservations:
museeduluxembourg.fr
www.grandpalais.fr
follow the exhibition on social
networks: #FantinLatour