The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-04
4 PAINTER OF MUSIC POEMS.
PLACE IN FRENCH ART OF HENRI
F4NTIN-LATOUR.
MED within a Few Days OF 2. p. Avery,
Who Did Much TO Make Him Known In
AmCrIca-IIis Work as Painter.
photographer Inspired by Musicians.

Avery and his friend, Henri Fantin-
Ioto,r, the French painter photographer,
whose work he did more than any one
also 70 make known on this side the ocean,
should have passed away within few
days OF each other. For many years Mr.
Avery had been an assiduous collector
NJ those dreamy, beautiful translations
Of music into pictorial form which gave
their creator a unique place in modern
French art, and the collection Of auto
rtbographs by Fantin which Mr.. Avery
presented to the New York Public Library
is the finest Of the kind in America and
indeed is probably as nearly complete as
snv gathering of the artists work in this
medium to be found in Europe. That the
painter and the collector were good friends
is shown by the penciled Inscriptions on
several Of the plates in this collection.
It Is. comparatively speaking, such
short time since the work OF Fantin-Latour
was first brought to the attention Of Amer
lean picture lovers who are also music
lovers that probably most people here who
knew of him at all were surprised to learn,
when he died on Aug. 81, that he was
man nearly If not quite 10 years old. There
il some disagreement among the French
critics who have written OF his art over
the date Of Fantin's birth. Antonin Proust
SAYS he was born at Grenoble in 1894. Others
say the date was 1896.
His father also was an artist and gained
considerable fame in his day as pastellist.
He died in 1875 thus living long enough
to see his own fame eclipsed by that OF his
son
The son, who rejoced in the full name
Of Ignace Henri Jean Theodore Fantin-
Latour, studied painting under his father,
under Leccq de Boisbaudran and under
Courbet 1t was in 1857 that he was ad-
yised to study under Courbet, and In later
years he was wont to tell with much amuse-
ment of his meeting with that individual.
When we arrived" he said, the painter
addressing us in his drawing but some
what emphatic tones, remarked:
Mes enfdnts, l am surrounded here
not by pupils, but by colaborators.'
For my own part" continued Fantin,
81 was at that time and still am immensely
impressed by Ingres who even now is per-
haps not sufficiently honored. l did not
stay long with Courbet, nor, by the way,
did he keep his studio OF collaborators'
any great length of time" Yet the short
period Of study under the arch-realist was
probably not without some benefit to Fan
tin, who was inclined almost to mysticism
in his earlier work.
For few years he lived and worked
in the modest establishment OF his father.
When at length he set up Q small studio
of his own he was too POOR to employ a
model. but practiced by painting portraits
OF himself.
For several years his work was rejected
by the Salon. But when he was rs picture
was accepted, and three years later his
.Hommage Delacroix," in which that
FAINTER was represented surrounded by his
PRINCIPAL disciples and defenders, created
a sensation. From that his fame began to
spread
His home was in London for a short time,
and there he became intimate with Sir Sey-
mour Haden, the etcher. But for thirty
FIVE years before his death he had lived
and worked quietly and unostentatiousy
in the Rue de lEcole des Beaux Arts, little
street in a secluded neighborhood ON the
other side" OF the Seine, which is altogether
the opposite Of what its name would in
dieate.
In 1870 he received a third class medal
at the Salon, and in 1878, one Of the second
class. In 1879 he was made a Chevalier
CT the Legion Of Eonor and hors concours
at the Salon, and in 1889 at the Exposition
Univ erselie
For a long time he devoted his attention
in painting to portraits and flower pieces,
but occasionally he executed a large subject
picture. Among these his portrait group
OF Monet and his friends, called I'm Ateler
aux Batignolles" and now In the Luxem-
bourg Gallery, his Coin de Table, In which
he represented Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud
and other friends, and his illustrations Of
musical themes, chiefly from Wagner,
are the most remarkable, His portrait OF
Edwards, the English engraver, and his
wife Is considered his best portrait and
by some is regarded as his greatest painting.
Fey of this artists paintings have been
seen in America He is known here chiefly
by his Autographs. Yet the picture lover
who knows these Autographs knows Fantin-
Latour, for in them his art is epitomized
more completely than can be said OF any
other artist who ever worked in the medium.
Fantin's attention was first drawn to
the artistic possibilities Of photography in
1851, and he speedily found. as Whistler
did some years later, in its photographic
quality the assurance Of an artistic triumph
He soon developed a method and style all
his own ana became BIteT 1910 Regular
yearly exhibitor OF Autographs.
As in painting Fantin-Latour was a sort
OF link between the romantic school OF the
past and his own time, so In photography,
too, he stood at the parting of the ways
hetv cen the old time, when the process
existed chiefly for satire, translation and
reproduction, and the new, when the pro- |
cess became thing to conjure with In the |
evocation OF subtle effects tones and values. |
For twenty years, or more, he was the only |
exponent OF artistic lithorgaphy in France. |
he kept turning out plate after plate |
Until his compatriots came to see. too, the |
teauties and possibilities OF working on |
tie store. complete catalogue OF his |
Autographs would probably run to $50 |
numbers, and many Of them were large and
elaborate pictures. He had habit OF /
destroying the stone after he had printed |
twenty copies from 1t, though he might
have printed hundreds as good as the first
score, and therefore complete collections
OF his plates are difficult and costly to get
together.
1.,l T.