Flowers and Fruit

This canvas was painted in June when hydrangeas, ranunculus, and roses are all in bloom. Henri Fantin-Latour’s characteristic diffuse light envelops the forms. The painting achieves subtle and appealing color harmonies with its rich pink, red, orange, yellow, green, and plum brown. Flowers, glass vase, and porcelain bowl are composed of brushstrokes that vary in thickness and hue to evoke texture and volume. For example, thick strokes that depict the white membrane of the orange wedges give way to thinner strokes for their sides, veiling the strong orange pigment beneath. Fantin portrayed three distinct subjects in his paintings: portraits; imaginary compositions reflecting his love of contemporary opera; and still lifes. Only his still lifes, however, were widely successful. Fantin became renowned for his precise rendering of nature, in part a reflection of the mid-19th-century fascination with photography and of the elevation of images of modern life rather than of history, allegory, or exotic places.