Study for the Portrait of Miss Crowe 1875

Curator: Henri Fantin-Latour's "Study for the Portrait of Miss Crowe," now residing at the Harvard Art Museums, offers a glimpse into the artist's process. Editor: My first thought? It's so wonderfully intimate. A peek behind the curtain. All those preparatory lines! Curator: Indeed, it's a study, not the final portrait. What's compelling is how it reveals Fantin-Latour's method, employing a grid to transfer and enlarge the initial composition. Editor: It’s almost like a meditation on perspective, both hers and his. The smaller framed image is a world of its own, and the larger image almost feels like a haunting of the small one. Curator: Fantin-Latour's portrait commissions were often entangled with the social expectations of the time, balancing artistic vision with societal demands and the sitter’s persona. Editor: Which makes this sketch feel so much more genuine, somehow. It is like catching a fleeting thought, a gentle moment of connection between artist and muse. Curator: Absolutely, and it makes one consider the layers of representation within portraiture itself. Editor: It certainly does. And I adore the raw quality of the graphite on paper, it invites us to dream.