Truth

Henri Fantin-Latour rose to prominence in the era of Impressionism, helped by his personal and professional connections to the group. He preferred, however, to exhibit at the Salon rather than with the Impressionists and, unlike Claude Monet or Pierre-Auguste Renoir, he rarely painted outdoors. By the early 1860s, Fantin-Latour was producing the three genres of painting that would sustain his career: portraiture, still-life painting, and imaginative or mythological scenes. Commissioned portraits and still-life paintings of flowers and fruits were essential to Fantin-Latour’s livelihood and he established an important clientele in England. But Fantin-Latour received the greatest critical attention for a series of ambitious group portraits featuring many of the most renowned artists, writers, and musicians of the time. His imaginative works were often inspired by his great love of music as evident in several of his paintings, which are based on the Richard Wagner’s operas.