Azalea and Pansies

A terracotta pot of white and pink azaleas in the centre with a basket of violet and yellow pansies lower left and a small bunch of azaleas, lower right, lying on the floor. This composition is characteristic of the flower paintings by Fantin-Latour which were so popular with English collectors. Perhaps his copying of Old Masters in the Louvre influenced his scrupulous attention to detail and care in placing the flowers, which seem to show an ancestry going back to the seventeenth century.

Fantin-Latour was born in Grenoble and studied painting with his father, Théodore, and, briefly, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His apprenticeship was based on copying the Old Masters before beginning to study from nature. It was in the Louvre in 1858 that Fantin-Latour met Whistler who persuaded him to visit London the following year, where he met Mr and Mrs. Edwin Edwards who became his most important British dealers and patrons. Fantin-Latour painted portraits and imaginative compositions but specialised in flower pictures and small still life paintings. He met Manet in 1874 and his friendship with the future Impressionists led him to exhibit in the Salon des Refusés in 1863, yet he remained an independent figure. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1862 onwards.