Lélio: The Aeolian Harp, from Hector Berlioz, sa vie et ses oeuvres
Medium
Lithograph in black on off-white China paper, laid down on white wove paper (chine collé)
Dimensions
Image: 23.1 × 15.1 cm (9 1/8 × 6 in.); Sheet: 30.6 × 22.7 cm (12 1/16 × 8 15/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
44094
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Hector Berlioz created Lélio, a work incorporating both music and spoken text, as a sequel to his Symphonie Fantastique. Like its predecessor, Lélio tells the story of a failed love affair, but it also describes the artist’s turn to music as an antidote to his heartbreak. This lithograph depicts Lélio’s fifth song, in which the artist listens to an Aeolian harp. Played by the wind, this wooden instrument served as an important symbol of artistic inspiration during the Romantic era.
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 ...