Immortality

"Wagnerism"—the fascination with Richard Wagner’s music and aesthetic theories—was ignited in Paris in 1861 with the premier of Tannhäuser, an opera so controversial that it was forced to close after the third performance. Wagner’s concept of the gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art in which all the arts were to be equal and united, sparked the imagination of artists and writers of the period. Fantin-Latour in particular dedicated himself to transferring the suggestive powers of music to his graphic work.