Inspiration
Medium
Lithograph in black on china paper
Dimensions
plate: 26.8 x 22.1 cm (10 9/16 x 8 11/16 in.) sheet: 38 x 28 cm (14 15/16 x 11 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection, gift in memory of Virginia H. Jackson
Accession Number
1996.151.44
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour's *Inspiration* (1895) is a striking lithograph in black ink on delicate china paper, capturing the artist's mastery of printmaking in his later years. Measuring 26.8 x 22.1 cm on the plate, this intimate work exemplifies Fantin-Latour's transition from Realism to more poetic, Symbolist influences. A prominent French artist of the 19th century, he was renowned for his meticulous portraits of fellow artists and lush still lifes, but his lithographs—like this one—reveal a softer, more atmospheric style, blending drawing's spontaneity with painting's depth. Lithography, Fanti...
About the Artist
Henri Fantin-Latour · 1836–1904
Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour was born on January 14, 1836, in Grenoble, France, to portrait painter Théodore Fantin-Latour, who gave him his earliest drawing lessons. The family relocated to Paris in 1841, where in 1850, at age 14, he enrolled in the École de Dessin, studying under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose innovative memory-based method of drawing from observation profoundly ...