Summer Flowers
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
20 x 24 3/8 in. (50.8 x 61.9 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Susan S. Dillon, 1997
Accession Number
1997.347
Tags
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour's *Summer Flowers* (1880) is a captivating oil on canvas still life that celebrates the ephemeral beauty of blooming blossoms. Measuring 20 x 24 3/8 inches, this work captures a lush arrangement of summer blooms—likely roses, peonies, and delicate fillers—arranged with meticulous realism against a softly lit background. Painted during the height of the 19th century, when flower still lifes symbolized abundance, transience, and the passage of seasons, it reflects the French artist's mastery of intimate domestic subjects. Fantin-Latour (1836–1904), a Paris-based painter infl...
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 ...