Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904) Eve. 1896. Artist’s proof. 380 x 465 [470 x 605 mm]. Hédiard, Mason 126. Superb print on applied China paper, inscribed “To Mrs. Edwards” and signed in pencil. Very slight light foxing. Very faint trace of oxidation where an old mount was removed. Small crease in the lower left corner. Small brown stain on the reverse. All margins intact. Total print run of 59 prints. Formerly in the collection of F. E. Bliss (L. 265): H. M. Petiet (Lugt 5031). AABM stamp (Lugt 3075). Henri Fantin-Latour and the English painter and etcher Edwin Edwards maintained a deep friendship and close professional collaboration beginning in the 1860s. Edwin Edwards became Fantin-Latour’s official agent and dealer in England beginning in the 1870s, helping him sell his famous flower paintings and supplying him with art supplies. Despite tensions stemming from difficulties in Edwards’s own artistic career and his shift toward increased commercial activities in the mid-1870s, their bond persisted until Edwin Edwards’s death in 1879, after which Fantin continued his business relationship with his wife, Ruth Edwards.