Essay by Katie Gedrimas, Class of 2007 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Immortalité is a work that stylistically parallels artist Henri Fantin-Latour's life. In this beautiful piece, Fantin combined elements of Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Symbolism, but overall, it is based on a very personal imaginative expression. Although Fantin practiced many different styles throughout his career, self-expression was the basis for his work.

Neoclassical elements are apparent in the classical idealism of this female figure, appropriately clothed in wet drapery and standing in a typical contrapposto position. By this time, Fantin had abandoned his Realist roots, for a more traditional academic approach. Yet his Neoclassical style was infused with romantic mystery and emotion. Aside from the use of this style, this piece is primarily an expression of the Symbolist Movement.

Through the allegorical subject matter, Immortalité expresses Fantin's feelings about the importance of the imagination, in a world relying on observed nature through photographic arts. The subject is almost thrust upon her viewers, asking them to think, imagine and interpret. The structure of this work consists of a central idealized female figure with expansive wings. The image evokes a dreamlike aura within a heavenly black and white atmosphere. Rays of light create a miraculous effect as they radiate downward from the upper left corner, originating from an unknown source. Her outstretched wings fade into the background depth. The figure is frontally illuminated, establishing her as an independent light source, reinforced by the star-like form above her head.

The close association of this image with the Romantics-painter Eugène Delacroix and writer Henri Mürger-established Fantin's allegiance to the mysterious world of the imagination, rather than to scenes of modern Paris that surrounded him. Perhaps he typified the modernist crisis of the fin-de-siècle (end of the century), in the realization that observed reality was likely not enough, as many wished for deeper elements that lay beneath the surface.