Prominent French painter, son of a drawing master and portrait painter, Fantin-Latour achieved fame and success in his lifetime primarily for his delicately rendered flower pictures and portraits. He was very much inspired by the old masters, and although he moved in artistic circles with Degas, Manet, and Whistler, and was a contemporary of the Impressionists, he never took up their theories and never exhibited with them. He spent several years in London and exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1879 he was awarded the Legion D’Honneur medal.
