Tannhäuser: Venusberg
Medium
Lithograph in black with scraping on stone on grayish-ivory chine laid down on thick ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 40.9 × 50.2 cm (16 1/8 × 19 13/16 in.); Primary sheet: 41 × 50.5 cm (16 3/16 × 19 15/16 in.); Secondary sheet: 49.8 × 59.8 cm (19 5/8 × 23 9/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
44015
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Richard Wagner's opera Tannhaüser was first interpreted by Henri Fantin-Latour in 1862. This second revised version of Venusberg was Fantin-Latour's first attempt at transfer lithography, a printing method in which the artist's drawing is transferred directly onto a lithographic stone. Here, Tannhaüser is depicted in Venus's realm of sensual delights. Nymphs dance to the music of a flute player, and Venus reclines upon Tannhaüser's lap, gazing passionately into his eyes.
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 ...