Standing Bather, second plate 1896

Curator: This is "Standing Bather, second plate," created by Henri Fantin-Latour in 1896. The work before us is a lithograph. What strikes you immediately? Editor: An enveloping darkness. That chiaroscuro pushes everything to the forefront, a dreamy sort of sensuality. Curator: Indeed. It's a nude emerging from, or perhaps entering into, dense foliage. It’s intriguing how Fantin-Latour is playing with our notions of nature, artifice, and even labor. The lithograph is interesting here. This particular printmaking process involves the artist working directly on a stone or metal plate. We can see it gives a tactile feel, a directness. It's almost as if we’re witnessing the artist's hand in every shadow and curve. Editor: You said it. Every line sings, a love song etched into stone. See how the light caresses her skin, those fluid transitions from shadow to light. But it isn't all saccharine: Fantin-Latour also gives us a smaller study of the bather at the very bottom corner of the work. Curator: I see. These prints, they weren't just individual artworks, they were commodities to be traded, collected, influencing the market and consumption of art. His approach challenges, too, what "high art" even meant at the time, with its connections to drawing, printmaking, reproduction… Editor: It gives you the sensation of uncovering something secret, doesn't it? The way she stands on the precipice, with the curtain of shadow… You almost want to join her in whatever is just out of view. It is almost magical in effect. And it brings me back to how different printmaking is to painting. Its purpose here moves away from something to look at and more something that acts as a cultural token. Curator: It certainly opens up some avenues to ponder! I am intrigued by how this type of production shapes our experience and how these lithographs navigate themes of privacy and spectatorship. Editor: A journey into the self, the landscape, and the making, indeed! It will make for an excellent bookmark!