Carnations 1902

Henri Fantin-Latour made this painting of carnations with oil on canvas, and it now lives in a private collection. I find the way he’s handled the paint here so sensual, almost edible. See how the paint application is so thick and generous? You can almost smell the earth! He doesn’t try to hide the strokes or blend them away. He’s interested in the materiality of paint, in the process of artmaking, and this comes through. It’s like a delicious dessert, isn’t it? Like cake frosting! Fantin-Latour was obsessed with flowers and I think he might be considered alongside Manet who shared his interest in the still life tradition. But where Manet was a revolutionary, Fantin-Latour was a traditionalist who, nonetheless, made some damn interesting paintings. I like the ambiguity of his work and the way he refuses to pin things down too tightly.