Landscape with Shepherds and Flock of Sheep

Fragonard was one of the major painters in 18th century France, and he was renowned for his genre scenes and decorative paintings filled with the light loveliness of Rococo sweetness. At the same time, he is also known to have created a number of beautiful landscape scenes based on his acute observation of nature and its moods. This painting is one such landscape work, based on the Italian scenery he had enjoyed during his four year sojourn in Italy begun in 1761. In addition to the Italianate quality, he also included some elements from Dutch landscape painting, a trend just beginning in French painting. The clear light that breaks through the cloudy sky to illuminate the scene is a sign of the direct influence of northern landscape painters such as Van Ruysdael, while the shape of animals and the mountains seen in the far distance, and the genre scene poses of human figures all suggest lessons learned by the painter in Italy. The cloudy sky that occupies three quarters of the composition forms the background for the low foreground with its scene of cows, horses, and a shepherd and his flock. The midground area is filled with a small steep hillock and large trees silhouetted against the sky, thus clearly setting off the foreground scenery from the sky. During his later years Fragonard gradually began to fuse landscape settings with specific mythological or genre scene subjects, breaking new ground in the genre. However, in this work, thought to have been created soon after his return from Italy, he was still focused on the creation of a pure landscape painting scene. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.52)