The Rhinegold

Henri Fantin-Latour's Wagnerian subjects occupy a distinctive place in his oeuvre — alongside his celebrated flower paintings and musical portraits, he produced a series of large allegorical compositions inspired by Wagner's operas that were his most ambitious figurative works. 'The Rhinegold' (1888) depicts the opening scene of Wagner's Ring cycle — the Rhinemaidens guarding the gold beneath the Rhine — a subject that combined mythological subject matter with the opportunity for the nude female figure in a dramatic natural setting. Fantin-Latour's Wagnerism reflected the broader French enthusiasm for the German composer in the 1880s.

Fantin-Latour renders the Wagnerian scene with a soft, dreamlike atmosphere that suits the mythological subject — the underwater world of the Rhine conveyed through bluish, diffused light rather than realistic aquatic simulation. His female figures are modeled with the same care he brought to his flower paintings, the nude forms establishing the painting's sensuous dimension within the mythological frame. The compositional arrangement of the Rhine maidens has a quality of choreographed grace.