Henri-Théodore FANTIN-LATOUR (1836-1904)

Yellow roses in a vase Oil on canvas. Signed and dated top left "Fantin 1891". 31,3 x 38,3 cm (Minor wear and restorations) Provenance : - London, Sotheby's sale, 5 December 1973, No. 16 reproduced in color. - F.Hasler (acquired at the previous sale) - London, Sotheby's sale, 27 June 1977, n°76, reproduced in colours - Huguette Bérès, Paris, 1985 - Private collection, France, acquired on 27/09/1988 Exhibition : - XIVth Biennale des Antiquaires, 1988, Paris, Grand Palais, Galerie Huguette Bérès - Musée Courbet, 2002, Ornans, "Courbet/Hugo, les peintres et les littérateurs", p173, reproduced in colour. - Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Exhibition, " Henri Fantin-Latour, de la Réalité au rêve " from 29/06 to 28/10/2007, reproduced in colours under n°71, p113 Authentication letter from Madame Sylvie Brame, dated 11 September 2015. This painting will be reproduced in the "Catalogue Raisonné des peintures et pastels d'Henri Fantin-Latour" in preparation by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau. "The flower he copies, he gives the physiognomy of it, it is itself and not another, from the same stem: he draws, constructs the flower and is not satisfied with communicating the impression of the vivid spots, dressed juxtaposed" (Jacques Émile Blanche). We know with what care Fantin would pick his flowers in the morning in his garden in Buré (Orne) and then arrange them in a vase previously selected. We also know that he prolonged his working days, getting up at dawn to finish a bouquet for fear that the flowers would wither. The artist could paint several dozen bouquets a year ("my life is spent in flowers" he said), but he never showed weariness or carelessness in his execution. On the contrary, one can feel the artist's joy in painting them. Even if Fantin painted allegorical subjects as well as portraits all his life, it was the sale of his still lifes that allowed the artist to live comfortably. In the 1860's, the English market was the only one to buy his flowers, thanks to the support of his friend the painter Whistler and especially the promotion assured by a couple of London art dealers, the Edwards. Even if Paul Durand Ruel took over in France from 1871 onwards, Ruth Edwards continued to market Fantin's works until the end of the 1880s after her husband's death. Fantin spends his summers painting flowers and in October, Ruth Edwards comes to Paris to take the paintings and present them in salons in England and Scotland. Yellow roses in a vase. Fantin placed yellow roses of the same variety in a modest glass vase and studied them individually. Although three of them could be the same flower seen from different angles, he chooses different degrees of maturity. For one, the bud has just opened, another is about to see its petals fall. We admire the infinite variety of touches, the subtle shades of white and yellow that stand out against the brown smear of the background. This delicate bouquet, in Fantin's subtle and intimate light, reminds us of what an immense poet he was: recent exhibitions (Grand Palais, Paris 1982, Lausanne 2007, Palais du Luxembourg, Paris 2016), have rightly placed him on a par with the most illustrious of his 18th century masters, Chardin.