Henri Fantin-Latour used to say of himself: 'The blood in my veins is much too mixed for me to be upset by questions of nationality and schools of thought'. He was never committed to any of the great movements of the period, and always remained independent. He was first taught to paint by his father and then by Lecoq de Boisbaudran, copying Old Masters in the Louvre. He was a friend and supporter of Manet and went to the Cafe Guerbois, and so became involved in the intellectual and artistic movements of the period. He is chiefly known as a painter of portraits, 'intimate' scenes and still lifes; his flower paintings are famous, especially his roses. The first paintings he sent to the Salon were portraits; his canvases were turned down in 1859 but accepted in 1861. He made friends with the American painter Whistler and visited England with him in 1859; he went there again in 1861 and 1864. In both England and France he was much admired as a flower painter, and from about 1872-1874, he concentrated on flower subjects. His large canvases with several portraits are famous, somewhat reminiscent of seventeenth-century Dutch painters, especially Frans Hals. An outstanding example is Homage to Delacroix, painted in 1864 a year after the great artist's death and exhibited in the 1864 Salon. It represents various artists and critics gathered round a self-portrait of Delacroix: Duranty, Fantin-Latour himselfin a white smock, Whistler, Champfleury, Manet, Baudelaire, Cordier, Legros, Bracquemond and de Balleroy. There is also The Studio at the Batignolles, painted in honour of his friend Manet. Here Manet sits at his easel, with Zacharie Astruc, Gtto Scholderer, Renoir, Emile Zola, Edmond Maitre, Bazille and Monet. A corner of the table (1872 Salon) shows a group of friends celebrating Baudelaire's birthday; they include Verlaine, Rimbaud, Leon Valade, Ernest d'Hervilly, Camille Pelletan, Elzear Bonnier, Emile Blemond and Jean Aicard. Apart from The Dubourg family (1878), his last great multiple portrait, this time of musicians, was Round the piano (1885 Salon), with Chabrier at the piano, Edouard Maitre, Adolphe Jullien, Boisseau, Camille Benoit, Lascaux, Vincent d'Indy and Amedee Pigear. Fantin-Latour loved music and was a great admirer of Wagner, as can be seen in The Three Rhine maidens (pastel, 1876, inspired by the opera Rheingold, Scene I) and Tannhauser (1886 Salon). Fantin-Latour also did lithographs, and the lyrical individual quality of his work is outstanding.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978