The Palace of Aurora
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
18 1/8 x 15 in. (46 x 38.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Anne D. Thomson, 1923
Accession Number
23.280.9
Tags
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour's *The Palace of Aurora*1902) is a captivating oil on canvas painting, measuring a intimate 18 1/8 x 15 inches, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art European Paintings collection. Created in the final years of the artist's life (1836–1904), this work reflects Fantin-Latour's late-career fascination with mythological reverie, departing from his earlier realist portraits and still lifes. Drawing inspiration from classical antiquity, the title evokes Aurora, the Roman goddess of, in a dreamlike palace scene populated by graceful female nudes and playful putti—cherubic ...
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 ...