Ignace-Henri-Théodore Fantin-Latour, 'Self Portrait', 1860

Famous for his still-life paintings of flowers, Henri Fantin-Latour was also a formidable portrait artist. He left many images of his friends and family, as well as of the eminent artists of his time, such as his friend Edouard Manet (Art Institute of Chicago).

All this he achieved by years of hard work. He copied the great masters of the past in the Musée du Louvre and painted twenty-one self portraits. This is how most portrait artists practised. Rembrandt left a hundred such images. Models are expensive, especially when you are still trying to make your name. As Fantin-Latour wrote of himself: ‘He is a model who is always ready, who offers all the advantages, he is punctual, co-operative and one knows him before beginning to paint.’

Portrait artists often flatter their sitters, but not Fantin-Latour. After a short while training with Gustave Courbet, he maintained a lifelong commitment to Realism, portraying the truth of reality. The self portraits show him in various moods, but always getting down to the bones of representing himself. In this painting, there is a feeling of unease. He seems to glance back, as if we might be following him. In reality, he is looking into a mirror, as he must do to make the portrait.

Wary-looking grey eyes are set deep in shadow over high cheekbones. A wispy reddish beard almost conceals the straight mouth. A darker chestnut mane of hair shows little sign of a professional barber’s attention. The nose is prominent, turned up at the tip. A bump in the middle suggests it might have been broken at some point. A streak of bright white indicates his shirt collar. This, and the reflected light on his nose, enlivens the muted colours of the picture.

Most of the other twenty-one paintings show Fantin-Latour’s head and shoulders against the background of a plain wall with no clutter to tell us more about him as a person. But this image is different. He gives us a little more information. Above his head the base of a gilded frame tips forward as it hangs, adding to the feeling of unease. Behind him is an unframed painting. It has been tentatively identified as the artist’s portrait of his sister, Mademoiselle Marie Fantin-Latour (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). This was one of three paintings rejected by the Paris Salon a short while before. It is remarkably indistinct, almost giving the impression that it has been rubbed out. This may perhaps be a metaphor for rubbing from his mind the event that had so disappointed him, but which left him determined to carry on.

There came a stage when, albeit successful, he decided to give up portraiture in favour of ‘imaginative’ paintings, including subjects from mythology such as The Judgement of Paris. But that painting stayed hidden away in his studio throughout his career. His delicate flower pictures kept him secure and respected and continue to delight. However, it is the portraits that show him as the impressive artist that he was.