Henri Fantin-Latour

“It should always be remembered that Fantin's still-lifes were made for a Victorian [English] public.. ..and that from his earliest visit to London he had been intrigued by the Pré-Raphaelites.”

“My dear Fantin two words more and then I shall send you this long affair - I have had your two letters and I was very pleased to get them - Your picture will be superb! The composition very fine, and I can see the heads painted by you in magnificent colour - The bust will perhaps be difficult to arrange - but I have the greatest confidence in you - Oh I wish I knew a little of what you know!..”

“Many young women's hands would be incapable of doing what I see there,' said the Prince, pointing to Mme de Villeparisis' unfinished watercolours. And he has asked her whether she had seen the flower painting by Fantin-Latour which had recently been exhibited.”

“his flower-paintings.. ..are all marvels of colours and artistic sensibility. They are as compelling as they are charming, in fact one might even call them moving. They are tonal rhythms, freshness, abandon, surprising vivacity. Their beauty captivates. This is nature with all.. ..that fleeting radiance that is the fate of flower.. .Delicacy of expression being the essence of his art, Fantin seems to be the visual poet of flowers.”

“You speak to me of Rembrand, of this famous, of this great, of this giant.. .I would very much like to see the painting by Rembrandt of which you speak, because it should be quiet splendid. I eat it up from here (you know the fashionable phrase)”

“The oeuvre of Frédéric Bazille is unclassifiable.”

“I even belief that the schools and artistic movements is past. After the Romantic movement, born of classicizing exaggeration, after the Realist movement, product of the follies of Romanticism, it may be seen that there is a great foolishness in all these ideas. We are going to achieve a personal manner of feeling.”