Symphonie Fantastique: A Ball, from Hector Berlioz, sa vie et ses oeuvres

French composer Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is an epic composition that tells the story of an artist’s unrequited love for a beautiful woman, who was probably based on the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Here, Henri Fantin-Latour paid homage to the symphony’s second movement, in which the artist, at right, tries to gain the attention of his beloved as the guests of the ball mingle in the background.