Henri Fantin-Latour

Henri Fantin-Latour is best known for his flowers: roses, peonies and chrysanthemums painted against plain, softly shaded backgrounds, with a calm precision that made them hugely popular in England. He also painted group portraits of the artists and writers of his day.

He was born in Grenoble in 1836, trained with his father and at the École des Beaux-Arts, and spent years copying in the Louvre, where he met Degas, Manet and Whistler. His group portraits Homage to Delacroix (1864) and A Studio at Les Batignolles (1870), which shows Manet at work surrounded by friends including Renoir and Monet, are in the Musée d’Orsay. He died in 1904.

In his still lifes, such as Cherries and A Plate of Apples, look at the soft, even light and the careful spacing of each piece of fruit.