Born in Paris, December 1, 1840, Victoria Fantin-Latour was a still life painter married to artist Henri Fantin-Latour. She studied under the portrait painter Fanny Cheron (b 1830) and probably met Fantin-Latour at the Louvre, Paris, where they were both copying in the mid-1860s.

Around 1867-8, she was associated with the circle of Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Fantin-Latour and Edgar Degas; it was at this time that Degas painted a very frank and unflattering portrait of Victoria, which is in the collection of the Toledo, Ohio Museum of Art. While it may be impossible to prove that she was actually a pupil of Fantin-Latour, the early works she exhibited at the Salon are in a style close to his, in parti...