International studio (15.1901/1902(1902))

T

The Art of Fantin Latour

HE ART OF FANTIN LATOUR.
BY ANTONIN PROUST.

Fantin Latour was born at Grenoble
on the 14th of January, 1834. His father, a native
of Metz, was a painter, who chiefly affected pastel
work. He was the son of a colonel of Artillery.
Fantin’s father married a girl of Russian parentage,
and one need not be very deeply versed in anthro-
pology to recognise the Slavonic character in his
face. Fantin often painted his own portrait, from the
time, long ago, when returning to his studio after
studying the masters at the Louvre, he found
himself, from want of means, obliged to be his own
model. Thus he would sit in front of his looking-
glass and paint himself, some of his efforts being
sheer masterpieces. One of the finest of his portraits
of himself, done in 1863 for the Uffizi Gallery,
Florence, is now reproduced.

On being asked by The Studio to write a
“ study ” of Fantin Latour, I went to spend an
afternoon at No. 8, Rue de
l’Ecole des Beaux Arts,
where the artist has lived
for thirty-three years in his
studio on the rez-de-chaussee,
the walls of which are
adorned by the works of his
youth.

I had not seen Fantin
Latour for eleven years;
we had not met since 1889,
when he was one of the
Jury of the Exhibition. I
found him engaged in
painting a piece of still life.

He had a shade over his
eyes to temper the glare of
the light, yet his eye had
all the brightness and viva-
city of his young days, when
he was making his wonder-
ful copies in the Louvre—
say in 1857—and puzzling
the crowd of copyists there
by the bold simplicity of
his method.

If my memory serves me,

Fantin Latour was, in 1857,
both at the School in the
Rue de TEcole de Medecine
—the old school founded by
Bachelier—in company with
Legros, Regamey, Cazin,

XV. No. 60.—February, 1902.

Lhermitte and others, and at the Ecole des
Beaux Arts, which was very different from what it is
to-day. At that time there were no ateliers gratuits
at the establishment in the Rue Bonaparte for
painters, sculptors, and architects, with profes-
sors directing them. The student worked there
for two hours a day at the most under the
supervision of masters such as Ingres, who had
arranged with various members of the Institut to
give courses of lessons which were both varied
and instructive. The transformation which oc-
curred in 1863 altered all this, and the words of
M. Grevy apply to the present Ecole des Beaux
Arts, as well as to many of our national institutions.
“ Change does not always mean reform.” Without
going into the cjd dispute once more, one may
nevertheless express the firm opinion that the new
method is greatly inferior to the old. On leaving
his class at the old Ecole the student was in a
position to choose a free atelier outside, and to go
where he pleased; whereas, nowadays, the ateliers

FANTIN LATOUR

(In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)

BY HIMSELF

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