Scanned from a transparency, then color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Portrait of Léon Maître

Artist Henri Fantin-Latour (French, 1836 - 1904)

CultureFrench

Date1886

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 51 3/4 x 38 3/4 in. (131.4 x 98.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 62 1/2 x 49 1/2 in. (158.8 x 125.7 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated lower left: Fantin. 86

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.509

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 217

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. The sitter, dressed in a black frock, is placed starkly against a luminous brown backdrop. He holds his top hat, a pair of yellow gloves and his gold-tipped walking stick--the fashionable accessories of the late-nineteenth-century Parisian gentlemen.

Label TextHenri Fantin-Latour French, 1836–1904 Portrait of Léon Maître, 1886 Oil on canvas Does this portrait belong in a gallery of Impressionist paintings? The austere realism, darkly clad subject, and dim interior setting contrast sharply with the light, brushy landscapes nearby. Moreover, the artist was an outspoken critic of the Impressionists, dismissing them as mere “dilettantes who produce more noise than art.” Nonetheless, Henri Fantin-Latour maintained close friendships with many Impressionist artists, and although his work seems relatively conservative, he developed a unique style by applying the restrained manner of the old masters to his modern subjects. Notice how he artfully uses the sitter’s angled cane, soft gloves, top hat, and white cuff to subtly enliven his composition. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.509 ProvenanceLéon Maître, Paris; Henri Lerolle, Paris, 1906; David-Weill, Paris; Alfred Daber, Paris, 1954; Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1954; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition HistorySalon, Paris, 1886; "XXXIIIe Exposition triennale de Gand. Salon de 1886," Casino, Ghent, 1886; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1887. "Exposition de l'oeuvre de Fantin-Latour," Palais de l'Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, May-June, 1906. "Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; St. Louis City Art Museum; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City; Detroit Institute of Arts; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 2, 1956 - April 14, 1957. "Paintings from Private Collections. Summer Loan Exhibition," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1958. "French Paintings, 1789-1929, from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. "The Controversial Century, 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1962. "Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. "Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk," for the benefit of The Chrysler Museum Art Reference Library, Wildenstein & Co., New York, N. Y., April 13 - May 13, 1978. "Fantin-Latour," Grand Palais, Paris, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1982 - Sept. 6, 1983. "Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections," The Baltimore Museum of Art, Oct. 10, 1999 - Jan. 30, 2000; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 25 - May 7, 2000; Cleveland Museum of Art, May 28 - July 30, 2000. "Fantin-Latour: Reality with the Dream", Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 29 - October 28, 2007 "Henri Fantin-Latour: Painter of Intimacy (1836-1904)," Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal, June 25 - September 6, 2009; Museu Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, September 28, 2009 - January 10, 2010. "Upstairs/Downstairs: Masterpieces from the Chrylser Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, October 10 - December 30, 2012. "Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, April 9, 2013 - February 2, 2014. "Fantin-Latour: À Fleur de Peau," Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, France, September 14, 2016 - February 12, 2017.Published ReferencesVictoria (Dubourg) Fantin-Latour. _Catalogue de l'Uvre Complet (1849-1904) de Fantin-Latour_. Paris: H. Floury. 1911. Bertina S. Manning. _Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition Organized by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon_. Portland: Portland Art Association. 1956. No. 80. Priscilla C. Colt and Charles H. Elam. _French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. 1960. No. 59. Foreword by Charles F. Comfort, LL.D., and an introduction by William S.A. Dale, Ph.D. _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_. Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts. 1962. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. 1977. No. 39. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum. 1978. No. 23. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, et. al., _Fantin-Latour_ (Paris: Ministère de la Culture, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1982) 328-330. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 34. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. Plate 114, 144. John House and Sona Johnston. _Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections_. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1999. 100-101. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 48, fig. 47. Juliane Cosandier et al., _Fantin-Latour: De la réalité au rêve (Reality with the Dream)_, exh. cat., Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2007, 66. João Carvalho Dias, ed., _Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)_, exh. cat., (Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2009), 159. Martin Faass, ed., _Max Liebermann und Frankreich_ (Berlin: Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee, in conjunction with Michael Imhof Verlag, 2013) 40. James H. Rubin and Olivia Mattis, eds. _Rival Sisters, Art and Music at the Birth of Modernism, 1815-1915_ (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014) 211, fig. 11.6. Laure Dalon, dir.,_Fantin-Latour: À fleur de peau_, (Paris: Réunion des musée nationaux Grand Palais, 2016), 161, fig. 83.