Painting of three women signed Fantin (Henri Fantin Latour)
Frame: 22" x 17"
Painting: 13 1/2" x 9"

Davids notes: When this painting was found in the Edward Needle Estate in NYC, it was torn. It appeared to be unsigned. After the restorer fixed the tears she pointed out it was signed Fantin on the left and Corot on the right. We consulted a worldwide expert who has written books on Henri Fantin-Latour who said it was definitely possible that it was by the hand of Latour, most likely a work that he did when he copied works from the Louvre or an original work based on when he was inspired by music, but the colors are right and the style is right for Henri Fantin-Latour. She also added that more work would be necessary to make a complete attribution.

Henri Fantin-Latour
(Source: Wiki) Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 - 25 August 1904) was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers.

He was born Ignace Henri Jean Theodore Fantin-Latour in Grenoble, Isere. As a youth, he received drawing lessons from his father, who was an artist. In 1850 he entered the Ecole de Dessin, where he studied with Lecoq de Boisbaudran. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1854, he devoted much time to copying the works of the old masters in the Musee du Louvre. Although Fantin-Latour befriended several of the young artists who would later be associated with Impressionism, including Whistler and Manet, Fantins own work remained conservative in style.

Whistler brought attention to Fantin in England, where his still-lifes sold so well that they were "practically unknown in France during his lifetime". In addition to his realistic paintings, Fantin-Latour created imaginative lithographs inspired by the music of some of the great classical composers. In 1876, Fantin-Latour attended a performance of the Ring cycle at Bayreuth, which he found particularly moving. He would later publish lithographs inspired by Richard Wagner in La revue wagnerienne, which helped solidify his reputation among Paris' avant-garde as an anti-naturalist painter.

In 1875, Henri Fantin-Latour married a fellow painter, Victoria Dubourg, after which he spent his summers on the country estate of his wifes family at Bure, Orne in Lower Normandy, where he died on 25 August 1904.

He was interred in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, Paris, France.

Good condition overall; some small tears restored