Théodore Fantin-Latour (French painter) 1805 - 1872
Théodore Fantin-Latour was father of Henri Fantin-Latour known for his portraits and still lifes of flowers. Source: Bonhams * * * Henri Fantin-Latour (French painter and lithographer) 1836 - 1904 Henri Fantin-Latour was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers. He was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour in Grenoble, Isère. As a youth, he received drawing lessons from his father, who was an artist. In 1850 he entered the Ecole de Dessin, where he studied with Lecoq de Boisbaudran. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1854, he devoted much time to copying the works of the old masters in the Musée du Louvre. Although Fantin-Latour befriended several of the young artists who would later be associated with Impressionism, including Whistler and Manet, Fantin's own work remained conservative in style. Whistler brought attention to Fantin in England, where his still-lifes sold so well that they were "practically unknown in France during his lifetime". In addition to his realistic paintings, Fantin-Latour created imaginative lithographs inspired by the music of some of the great classical composers. In 1875, Henri Fantin-Latour married a fellow painter, Victoria Dubourg, after which he spent his summers on the country estate of his wife's family at Buré, Orne in Lower Normandy, where he died on 25 August 1904. He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France. Source: Wikipedia * * * Victoria Dubourg Fantin-Latour (French painter) 1840 - 1926 Victoria Dubourg was born in Paris in 1840. Showing great artistic skills in her teens, she first became a student of Fanny Cheron. In 1860, she met Edouard Manet who became a very good friend and who would have a great influence on her at the beginning of her career. In 1866, as she was copying some masterworks in the Louvre museum, she met the artist Henri Fantin Latour. They fell in love and got married 10 years later, on 15 November 1876. From 1869 to 1902, Victoria Dubourg exhibited regularly at the French Artists Salon. She received a Honour Mention in 1894 for « Oeillets dans un vase », and a third medal in 1895 for « Panier de fleurs ». She was a member at the Royal Academy from 1882 to 1896. In 1920 she received the Legion d’Honneur. Appreciated for her smartness, she used to be surrounded by highly talented people, artists and writers. A very skilled piano player herself, she loved music and fought strongly in favour of the « avant garde » german composers, contemporary of her time, like Wagner and Brahms. She lived in Paris and used to spend every summer in the countryside with her husband Fantin-Latour chosing carefully the flowers for their floral paintings. Victoria Fantin-Latour belonged to the circle of Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot and Edgar Degas. The latter, a very close friend, painted her portrait in 1868/69, (now in the Toledo Museum of Art.). Stylewise, she always kept her distances from the Impressionnists. She specialized in studies of flowers and fruits, and her still-lifes are closer to those of Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, whose tradition was to be reevalued in the 19th century, by artists like Adolphe Felix Cals and François Bonvin. Of course, she was also influenced by her husband’s with whom she used to paint jointly. But she did manage to create her very own style. Focusing on the effects and contrasts of light and shades more than on details, she painted very harmonious floral compositions, often more sophisticated than her husband’s. One can also find some references to the Japanese woodprints in her work. Henri Fantin-Latour painted six portaits of his wife Victoria, including one for their wedding which is now in the museum of Grenoble. After his death, she devoted herself fully to his memory, promoting his paintings and working mainly on his catalogue raisonné until its publication in 1911.
