Fantin-Latour by Douglas Druick and Michel Hoog (review)

518 LETTERS IN CANADA 1983 Douglas Druick and Michel Hoog. Fantin-Latour National Gallery of Canada for the Corporation of the National Museums of Canada. $29.00 Recent trends of historical inquiry into the developments of nineteenthcentury French art have tended to focus on artists whose less spectacular achievements alongside the recognized innovators have relegated their often considerable contributions to undeserved neglect. In addition to its more realistic assessment of the artistic environment as it actually existed in the nineteenth century, this revisionist approach occasionally rediscovers an artist of surprising talent. One such artist who has emerged with remarkable vigour and undeniable artistic merit is Henri FantinLatour (1836-1904). Prior to the publication by Douglas Druick and Michel Hoog of the penetrating and magnificently documented Fantin-Latour catalogue to accompany the 1982-3 exhibition (Paris, Ottawa, San Francisco), Fantin's rather limited reputation resided almost entirely in his much-reproduced four group portraits which hang side by side in the Jeu de Paume. Most previous attempts to consider the entirety of Fantin's art (recently, Edward Ludie-Smith's Henri Fantin-Latour, London 1977, and Michelle Verriers Fantin-Latour, Paris 1978) have despaired of the apparent irreconcilability of the various aspects of his ceuvre and have therefore failed to grasp the essential Fantin. His simultaneous forays into realism (the portraits and still-lifes) and into the realm of imagination (the allegories and Schumann-, Berlioz-, and Wagner-inspired musical 'fantasies ') seemed to defy logical explanation, at least so far as trying to fit Fantin comfortably within our linear notions of the evolution of modem art in the second half of the nineteenth century is concerned. Druick and Hoog offer a much more all-encompassing view, constantly underlining the interrelation of realist and fantasy images. The 153 paintings, drawings, and prints represented are supported by a scholarly investigation of Fantin's artistic alliances, ideologies, and peculiarities, with extensive quoting from his largely unpublished correspondence and contemporary critical reviews. A very generous bibliography, exhibitions list, index, and chronology and a detailed note on technique ending with a comparative analysis of Fantin's and Delacroix's palettes by Barbara A. Ramsay, Conservator at the National Gallery of Canada, make this catalogue a principal document for future Fantin study. The catalogue succeeds from the beginning in destroying the myth, described by Hoog in his introductory essay, that Fantin was at best either a mediocrity or a hanger-on. In spite of Fantin's close association with Whistler, Manet, and the emerging impressionists, he chose a path of different modernist implications, a choice increaSingly pronounced as he became more confident about the artistic value of his 'imaginative projects.' As Hoog concludes, albeit somewhat simplistically, Fantin was 'among those who proved there was a viable way between imperial academicism and insurgent impressionists.' Organizing a comprehensive study ofFantin's art is no easy task. While exhaustive in intent and many times surprising for the insights afforded by the chosen format, the catalogue can be frustrating, particularly when a developmental overview of anyone aspect of Fantin's cruure is sought. In order to emphasize Fantin's joint adoption of realistand fantasy modes, the catalogue entries (approximately 70 per cent by Druick) have been broken down into general chronological sections, and within each section short mixed-media subsections of varying time spans alternate between portraits, still-lifes, and imaginative compositions. This approach succeeds more profoundly in conveying the essence of Fantin's artistic activity than the more traditional method of considering each category of his art as an independent entity. However, the resulting visual product is unnerving in that the staccato rhythm created by the abrupt transitions between subjects and modes somehow undermines what we are given to be the continuity with which Fantin evolved his two styles in tandem. If somewhat visually rough, the informative, explicative essays at the head of each section and subsection (all by Druick except for one collaboration) do allow the serious reader a means of maintaining equilibrium. The catalogue's most enlightening feature is the middle section entitled 'The Painter and la Gloire, 1863-187°.' This examines the genesis of three of his group portraits: Homage to Eugene Delacroix (1864),Toast! Homage to Truth...