Pansies
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 46.04 × 71.12 cm (18 1/8 × 28 in.) framed: 56.2 × 81.28 × 4.13 cm (22 1/8 × 32 × 1 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
2014.18.10
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour’s *Pansies* (1874) exemplifies the artist’s celebrated mastery of floral still life. A French painter associated with both Realism and the generation that bridged it to Impressionism, Fantin-Latour produced numerous intimate flower paintings that were especially prized by British collectors. Here, the delicate pansies are arranged across a neutral ground, inviting quiet contemplation of their varied colors and velvety textures. Painted in oil on canvas, the work demonstrates the medium’s capacity for subtle gradations of tone and precise botanical detail. The modest scale—...
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 ...