Artist: Henri Fantin-Latour (French, 1836 - 1904). Title: "Nature morte: fleurs veloutées". Medium: Oil on canvas. Date: Composed 1891. Dimensions: Frame size: 34 x 39 3/16 in. (864 x 995 mm). Image size: 23 3/8 x 29 in. (594 x 737 mm). Lot Note(s): Signed and dated, upper right. Painting condition: Very good overall; as found, unconserved, not relined; various areas of “spider thread” craquelure; uneven varnish application; several minor “reverse dimples” in the canvas; the canvas with minor sagging; gentle and minor stretcher bar telegraphing; blacklight examination reveals no defects; signature contemporary to the painting. Frame: Period gilt and gesso ornate frame, quite possibly the original – on the inside of the fillet, center right, is written in script “peinture fleurs;” scattered losses to the gesso; extremely well made. Stretcher: Original stretcher with centre-bar, nails preserved, stamped “F. DUPRÉ/ 141 Faubourg Saint-Honoré/ Au coin de la Rue de Berri, PARIS”. Comment(s): Fantin-Latour is best known for his classically restrained and painstakingly detailed floral compositions. Our example is perhaps as “impressionistic” a floral painting as one could find by his hand. His ebullience is apparent in his rapid brushstrokes and use of color. Perhaps he felt less constrained due to the sheer size of this canvas since it, while not huge, is unusually large for him and perhaps twice as much so as the average size of his floral works. A search of his auction records for the past ten years finds only two sales of floral oil paintings of similar size to our example (23 3/8” x 29”): “Roses tremieres,” 29 1/16” x 23 ¾”, sold for £842,500 ($1,303,770) at Christie’s London, King Street, February 4, 2014, lot #42; and “Panier de fleurs,” the larger of the two at 24 ½” x 31 5/8”, sold for $1,205,000 at Christie’s New York, Rockefeller Center, May 14/15, 2015, lot #34C. He was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour. [18435-10-4000]