Still Life with Grapes and a Carnation
c. 1880
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 30.5 x 47 cm (12 x 18 1/2 in.) framed: 40.32 x 56.52 x 5.72 cm (15 7/8 x 22 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
2006.128.20
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Lat’s *Still Life with Grapes and a Carnation* (c. 1880) exemplifies the quiet elegance of late-nineteenth-century French still-life painting. Though best known for his luminous flower pieces, Fantin-Latour brought the same refined observation to fruit and single blossoms. Working in oil on canvas, he achieved remarkable softness in the grapes’ translucent skins and the carnation’s delicate petals, inviting viewers to appreciate the subtle play of light across ordinary objects. Painted at a moment when many artists were exploring Impressionist effects outdoors, Fantin-Latour rema...
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 ...