Jean-Honoré Fragonard: 11 works

'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.'

'As a student at the Académie de France in Rome, Jean-Honoré Fragonard was encouraged to sketch Roman sites in the open air. In this view of the Palatine Hill's northeast corner, a site also sketched by his friend Hubert Robert and by François Boucher, Fragonard created a powerful visual momentum by coordinating the forward thrust of the corner of the palace, the brilliant sunlight, and the towering cypresses.'

'Fragonard was the last and perhaps the greatest of the French Rococo painters.'

'Fragonard was one of the last representatives of rococo art and this work shows his most characteristic style: touches of light material known as 'virtuosity of speed'.'

'Perhaps more than the work of his two teachers, Boucher and Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard's bravura handling of brushwork and color embodies eighteenth-century painting aesthetics.'

'The fluid brushwork and thick impasto of the girl's theatrical 'Spanish' costume identifies this work as one of Fragonard's Figures de Fantaisie, a series of imaginary figures painted to demonstrate his remarkable range of technique. By forging Grimou's signature, a painter who was himself known as a copyist and extremely popular at the time, Fragonard was not trying to create a forgery but rather a playful tease to challenge the viewer to uncover the true author.'

'This small work is a study for Fragonard's painting "The Pursuit," one of four wall-sized panels that form "The Progress of Love," now in The Frick Collection, New York. Fragonard was commissioned by Madame DuBarry, Louis XV's mistress to paint four large canvases for the Château de Louveciennes, near Versailles.'

'Fragonard's light, fluent washes also work to convey a sense of abandonment, evident especially in the wildly tossed-about bedclothes.'

'The women are probably Marie-Anne Gérard, who married Fragonard in 1769, and her younger sister Marguerite, Fragonard's pupil.'

'Jean-Honoré Fragonard's highly personal, powerful style emerged after periods of study with both François Boucher and Jean-Siméon Chardin, and over five years at the Académie de France in Rome.'

'With this version, Jean-Honoré Fragonard returned the allegory to its classical origins and imbued it with the thrilling rush of those first beguiling moments of love. The quintessential Rococo artist, Fragonard responded to the Neoclassical movement in an extremely inventive manner, adding a soft, steamy atmosphere to his cameo-like figures.'