Jean Honoré Fragonard
Born – Grasse, France 1732
Died – Paris, France 1806
Fragonard is synonymous with eighteenth-century rococo style. He was, in fact, an artist of great versatility who worked in a variety of styles and used a range of techniques. These were a result of the breadth of the teaching he received and the works he studied on his travels. He was tutored by both Chardin and Boucher and when in Rome he studied under Tiepolo, whose influence in regard to the use of grandeur and spatiality can be detected in Fragonard’s larger works. While in Italy he developed competent landscape paintings. Once back in Paris in 1761, he painted historical themes in the Grand Manner, becoming a member of the Academy in 1765. The elegance of the aristocracy and their gay abandonment to his life’s pleasures is portrayed with verve by Fragonard. Healthy foliage and outrageously fussy, decorative clothing all receive the same, painterly treatment; delicate observations of Watteau meet the robust fleshiness of Rubens. His images are rich, erotic and fanciful. In The Stolen Kiss, Fragonard rescues the subject from sentimentality, suggesting a more gallant approach. Subsequent attempts to conform to neoclassical taste failed. He dies in poverty.
Masterpieces:
- The Progress of Love
- The Swing
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.