Reclining female nude

Fantin-Lantour was a great music lover. He much preferred to paint subjects derived from the world of music than still lifes. These were, it is true, appreciated in select circles, but they were hardly attractive for the trade. This small ‘Reclining female nude’ is probably a study for one of Fantin-Latour’s musical subjects. Such semi-nude and nude female figures appear in his illustrations derived from Richard Wagner’s 'Tannhäuser', which was first performed in 1861 in Paris, in his tributes to Schumann and Berlioz, and on the many scenes inspired by 'Der Ring des Nibelungen', which he had seen in 1876 in Bayreuth. The compositions of his figurative works are fluent and mobile. His brush technique is freer than in his still lifes; sometimes he scratches the back of the brush into the wet paint. He keeps shapes vague and his use of colour is warm, sometimes tending towards sombre.