Marigolds 1891
Oil on canvas, 51.4 x 38.8 cm
Purchased, 1892 (advice of Bernard Hall)
National Gallery of Victoria (p.308.4-1)
This modest still life, shown in the Anglo-Australian Exhibition staged in Melbourne in 1892, was one of the first works purchased on the Hall’s advice, shortly after he took up his appointment as NGV director.
The artist, also a noted portraitist, specialized in flower paintings. His earlier, more colourful Dahlias (1863) was an early Felton Bequest purchase, in 1906.
Refs.
AR 1892, p.23; NGV 1894, p.20 (I.La Trobe Gallery, no.23; ill.); NGV 1905, p.16 (I.La Trobe Gallery, no.28: ill.) [£45]
For the artist, see Bénézit 5, pp.459-62 (listing both NGV paintings), AKL 36 (2003), pp.543-48 (with further references); and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fantin-Latour. For Dahlias, see http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/col/work/3949 and Gott 19C (2003), pp.48-49