HENRI FANTIN-LATOUR
(1836-1904)
Fantin-Latour was born in Grenoble and the family then moved to Paris when he was five. His initial training was under Horace Lecoq-de-Boisbaudran (1802-97) who had also taught, Rodin, TISSOT and LEGROS amongst others. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts, 1854, but only stayed three months as his tutors did not consider him to be making sufficient progress.
He continued his training as a copyist at the Louvre, making paintings there up to 1870. Through the Louvre he also became friends with MANET and WHISTLER. Latour made his first lithographs in 1862, and renewed his interest in the medium in 1873 when there was a Schumann celebration in Bonn; although not intending to travel to this, he made a lithograph as a personal tribute, To the memory of Robert Schumann.
His lithographs were generally made in two stages. The first stage would be a drawing on transfer paper that would be carried over to the stone and printed as a first state. For the second state (as with this print), he worked directly on the stone (adding and scraping back) to create texture and highlights.
Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.
Extract taken from Prints, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery .