_Roses de Nice_ on a Table
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 26.4 x 41.9 cm (10 3/8 x 16 1/2 in.) framed: 29.4 x 45.2 x 2.4 cm (11 9/16 x 17 13/16 x 15/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession Number
2004.110.4
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour’s *Roses de Nice on a Table* (1882) captures the quiet elegance of a simple bouquet in oil on canvas. The French painter, celebrated for his refined still lifes, brings delicate roses to life with soft petals and subtle color variations. Measuring just over ten by sixteen inches, the intimate scale invites close viewing, highlighting the artist’s meticulous attention to natural form. Fantin-Latour worked during a period when flower painting enjoyed renewed appreciation in France. Though associated with Realist traditions, his works often carry a poetic restraint that distinguishes them from more dramatic compositions of the era. The oil medium allows rich layering and luminous effects, conveying both the freshness of the blooms and the gentle play of light across their surfaces. Now part of the National Gallery of Art’s collection through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, this painting exemplifies Fantin-Latour’s enduring gift for transforming ordinary subjects into moments of contemplative beauty.
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 ...