The Reader

1859

Meets Gustave Courbet

In 1859 Fantin-Latour met Gustave Courbet and worked in his studio for the next two years. According to other accounts, he only briefly frequented Courbet's studio in 1861; a painting from this period shows him with the painter and caricaturist Oulevay.

1859

The Salon of 1859 rejects his self-portrait

The Salon of 1859 rejected his first submissions, including one of his self-portraits. Fantin-Latour then began exhibiting with his friend Édouard Manet and the future Impressionists Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet.

1859–1881

Stays in London at Whistler's invitation

At Whistler's invitation Fantin-Latour stayed in London several times between 1859 and 1881 and found many admirers in England for his still lifes of flowers and fruit. Whistler introduced him to his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden and the engraver Edwin Edwards; it was in London that Fantin learned etching.

1860s

Still lifes bring recognition in England

In the 1860s Fantin-Latour cultivated the still life, a genre that would play a capital role in his career. His flowers and fruit found recognition in England, while in France they were said to be practically unknown during his lifetime; his English patrons and dealers Edwin and Ruth Edwards advised him to use simple vases and table tops to show off his gift for rendering texture and colour.

1862

A still life at the Royal Academy in London

In 1862 one of his still lifes was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. It was the first of a long series: thereafter he showed several there almost every year, and they invariably occupied a prominent place in the exhibition.

1863

In both the Salon and the Salon des Refusés

In 1863 Fantin-Latour's works were shown simultaneously at the Paris Salon and the Salon des Refusés. He thus joined the revolt of the future Impressionists and became part of the Batignolles group around Édouard Manet, which Gustave Kahn called the link uniting the old and new painters of France.