The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Fairy of the Alps

c. 1885

Henri Fantin-Latour

(French, 1836–1904)
France
charcoal with white chalk and black chalk, with framing lines in black crayon and squaring marks in graphite, on laid paper discolored to tan
Sheet: 62.5 x 46.7 cm (24 5/8 x 18 3/8 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2019.225
Catalogue raisonné: Dubourg 1242
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This drawing relates to a print of the same year. Fantin used this sheet to work out his composition before completing a drawing on tracing paper, which was then used to transfer the image to a lithographic stone.

Description

Henri Fantin-Latour’s drawings featured imaginative compositions, often inspired by the music of contemporary German composers. This sheet relates to the symphonic work Manfred by Robert Schumann (1848), a drama in which Manfred encounters apparitions while mourning his lost lover. Fantin used layers of dark charcoal to evoke the emotional tenor of his subject and to translate the experience of listening to Schumann’s music using a visual medium.
  • by 1901-1937
    Madame Albert Esnault-Pelterie, Paris
    1937
    (her sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 4, 1937, no. 11)
    2017
    (sale, De Baecque et Associés, Paris, June 19, 2017, no. 230)
    2017-2019
    (Jill Newhouse, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2019-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Hédiard, Germain. "Les Dessins de Fantin-Latour." Unpublished manuscript, 1901. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (YB3-2752-4). Mentioned: nos. 77 (dessins encadrés) and 12 (exposition chez M. Tempelaere)
    Dubourg, Victoria. Catalogue de l’œuvre complet (1849–1904) de Fantin-Latour. Paris: Floury, 1911. Mentioned: p. 129, no. 1242
    Tableaux modernes et du XIXe siècle [. . .] appartenant à M. X [. . .]. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1937. Mentioned: p. 4, no. 11
    Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 142-143, no. 26
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).
    Exposition de dessins de Fantin-Latour. Galerie Tempelaere, Paris (December 2–21, 1901).
  • {{cite web|title=Fairy of the Alps|url=false|author=Henri Fantin-Latour|year=c. 1885|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.225