Fairy of the Alps

Henri Fantin-Latour’s drawings featured imaginative compositions, often inspired by the music of contemporary German composers. This sheet relates to the symphonic work Manfred by Robert Schumann (1848), a drama in which Manfred encounters apparitions while mourning his lost lover. Fantin used layers of dark charcoal to evoke the emotional tenor of his subject and to translate the experience of listening to Schumann’s music using a visual medium.