Vrouwen en engelen kronen een borstbeeld van Gioachino Rossini Possibly 1903 - 1923

Henri Fantin-Latour made this lithograph, *Vrouwen en engelen kronen een borstbeeld van Gioachino Rossini*, which translates to "Women and angels crown a bust of Gioachino Rossini," sometime in the late 19th century. It's all soft grays and smudgy blacks, so the eye slides over the whole thing like it's a dream, or maybe a half-remembered one. You can see how the artist really worked the stone, pushing and pulling at the ink, letting the image emerge slowly. The figures in the print seem to float. Look at the seated woman, and how the folds in her dress are made up of tiny strokes. It's like she is both there and not there, solid but also dissolving into the background. That little sketch of a head over on the right is so delicate. You get the feeling Fantin-Latour didn't want to overwork anything, preferring to leave things a little unfinished. It's all suggestion and atmosphere, a dance between light and shadow. It reminds me a little of Redon, someone else who knew how to make black and white sing. Art isn't about perfect representations, it's about feeling your way through the dark.