Fantin-Latour was a French painter and printmaker who became famous for his flower still lifes and his portraits of Parisian avant-garde artists and writers. This is a study of the poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), who was only eighteen years old at the time. It shows the boy-writer as fellow poet Paul Verlaine described him: the enfant sublime with the face of an exiled angel. Fantin-Latour used this study for his famous painting Un coin de table (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), which depicts a group of poets-- also including Verlaine--and was exhibited at the Salon of 1872. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Signed in pen and black ink at upper left, "Fantin. 72", and below framed area and partially effaced by wash at lower right, "F. Latour/F. Latour".
Barthou, Louis, 1862-1934, former owner.
Barthou, Léon, former owner.
Duhamel, Georges, 1884-1966, former owner.
Viardot, former owner.
Clairet, Alain, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 117, repr.
The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and Oil Sketches : Acquisitions since 1994. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 2002, no. 46.