Jean-Honoré Fragonard

• Name — Jean-Honoré Fragonard • Born — 5 April 1732 • Birthplace — Grasse, France • Died — 22 August 1806 • Place of death — Paris, France • Children — 2, including Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard • Movement — Rococo • Awards — Prix de Rome • Field — Painting, drawing, etching • Training — * Jean-Siméon Chardin • François Boucher • Charles-André van Loo French Academy in Rome • Works — The Swing, A Young Girl Reading, The Bolt

• Illustration — Statue of Fragonard in Grasse, his birthplace • Illustration — Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Blindman's Buff, 1775–1780, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego Jean-Honoré Fragonard was born in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, France the only child of François Fragonard, a glover, and Françoise Petit. In 1738 the family relocated to Paris. The young Fragonard showed an inclination for art, which was recognized by François Boucher, who recommended him to the atelier of Chardin. Fragonard studied for a short time with Chardin then returned ca. 1749 to Boucher, whose style he soon acquired so completely that the master entrusted him with the execution of replicas of his paintings. Though not yet a student of the Academy, Fragonard gained the Prix de Rome in 1752 with a painting of Jeroboam Sacrificing to Idols, but before proceeding to Rome he continued to study for three years under Charles-André van Loo. In the year preceding his departure he painted the Christ washing the Feet of the Apostles now at Grasse Cathedral. In December 1756, he took up his abode at the French Academy in Rome, then presided over by Charles-Joseph Natoire. While at Rome, Fragonard contracted a friendship with a fellow painter Hubert Robert. In 1760, they toured Italy together, executing numerous sketches of local scenery. It was in these romantic gardens, with their fountains, grottoes, temples and terraces, that Fragonard conceived the dreams which he was subsequently to render in his art. He also learned to admire the masters of the Dutch and Flemish schools (Rubens, Hals, Rembrandt, Ruisdael), imitating their loose and vigorous brushstrokes. Added to this influence was the deep impression made upon his mind by the florid sumptuousness of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, whose works he had an opportunity to study in Venice before he returned to Paris in 1761. In 1765 his Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe secured his admission to the Academy. It was made the subject of a pompous (though not wholly serious) eulogy by Denis Diderot, and was bought by the king, who had it reproduced at the Gobelins factory. Until this time Fragonard had hesitated between religious, classic and other subjects, but he did not aspire to become a history painter and he had difficulty completing official commissions. As a consequence, he painted mostly for private patrons or for himself. The demand of the wealthy art patrons of Louis XV's pleasure-loving and licentious court turned him definitely towards those scenes of love and voluptuousness, which are only made acceptable by the tender beauty of his color and the virtuosity of his facile brushwork; such works include the Blind Man's Bluff (Le collin maillard), Serment d'amour (Love Vow), Le Verrou (The Bolt), La Culbute (The Tumble), La Chemise enlevée (The Raised Chemise), and L'escarpolette (The Swing, Wallace Collection), and his decorations for the apartments of Mme du Barry and the dancer Madeleine Guimard. • Illustration — Early engraving after Jean-Honoré Fragonard titled Chaumiére Italienne A lukewarm response to these series of ambitious works induced Fragonard to abandon the Rococo style and to experiment with Neoclassicism. He married Marie-Anne Gérard (1745–1823), herself a painter of miniatures, on 17 June 1769 and had a daughter, Rosalie Fragonard (1769–1788), who became one of his favourite models. In October 1773, he again went to Italy with Pierre-Jacques Onézyme Bergeret de Grancourt and his son, Pierre-Jacques Bergeret de Grancourt. In September 1774, he returned through Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Frankfurt and Strasbourg. Back in Paris Marguerite Gérard, his wife's 14-year-old sister, became his student and assistant in 1778. In 1780, he had a son, Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (1780–1850), who eventually became a talented painter and sculptor. The French Revolution deprived Fragonard of his private patrons: they were either guillotined or exiled. The neglected painter deemed it prudent to leave Paris in 1790 and found shelter in the house of his cousin Alexandre Maubert at Grasse, which he decorated with the series of decorative panels known as the Les progrès de l'amour dans le cœur d'une jeune fille, originally painted for Château du Barry. • Illustration — The Swing (French: L'escarpolette), 1767, Wallace Collection, London

• Illustration — Jeroboam Offering Sacrifice for the Idol, 1752, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris • Illustration — Blind Man's Bluff, 1750–1752, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio • Illustration — The See-Saw, 1750–1752, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid • Illustration — The Birth of Venus, 1753–1755, Musée Grobet-Labadié, Marseille • Illustration — The Grape Gatherer, 1754–1755, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan • Illustration — The Musical Contest, 1754–55, Wallace Collection, London • Illustration — Aurora Triumphing over Night, c. 1755–56, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Illustration — The Little Park, 1763, Wallace Collection, London • Illustration — Coresus Sacrificing himself to Save Callirhoe, 1765, Louvre, Paris • Illustration — Callirhoe's Sacrifice. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. (ricordo from the large Coresus and Callirhoë) • Illustration — The Bathers, c. 1765, Louvre, Paris • Illustration — Inspiration, 1769, Louvre, Paris • Illustration — Portrait of a Man, the so-called Denis Diderot, 1769, Louvre, Paris • Illustration — Portrait of François-Henri d'Harcourt, c. 1769, Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, Bergamo • Illustration — The Love Letter, 1770, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York • Illustration — La Gimblette, c. 1770, Alte Pinakothek, Munich • Illustration — The Secret Meeting, 1771, (former collection of Madame Du Barry), Frick Collection, New York • Illustration — The Visit to the Nursery, c. 1775, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Illustration — A Young Girl Reading, c. 1776, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Illustration — The Two Sisters, after 1778, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York • Illustration — The Stolen Kiss, late 1780s, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg • Illustration — The Beautiful Servant, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm • Illustration — The Woman With A Dog, after 1760, found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art • Illustration — Les Débuts du Modèle Or Model's First Lesson, 1770, found in Musée Jacquemart-André • Illustration — Le Chat angora (c. 1783–1785), Wallraf-Richartz Museum.

• Consuming Passion: Fragonard's Allegories of Love – Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, from 28 October 2007 to 21 January 2008. • Fragonard – Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris, from 3 October 2007 to 13 January 2008. • Fragonard. Origines et influences. De Rembrandt au XXIe siècle – Caixa Forum, Barcelona, from 10 November 2006 to 11 February 2007. • Les Fragonard de Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie de Besançon, from 8 December 2006 to 2 April 2007: Official website • Fragonard: Drawing Triumphant–Works from New York Collections, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6 October 2016 to 8 January 2017 • Fragonard and the French Tradition, Morgan Library & Museum, from 13 October 2006, through 7 January 2007 • Jean-Honoré Fragonard, dessins du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, from 3 December 2003 to 8 March 2004. • Fragonard amoureux, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, from 16 September 2015 to 24 January 2016: Official website • Fragonard’s Enterprise: The Artist and the Literature of Travel – Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, from 17 September 2015 to 4 January 2016. • Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. from 8 October - 3 December 2017

The following is established of the heading itself. Recorded as France and French constitutional monarchy.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count. It is also recorded that nymph Supported by Two Satyrs (Nymphe s'asseyant sur les mains de deux satyres). It is also recorded that the Satyr's Family (La famille du satyre). It is also recorded that nymph Astride a Satyr (Jeune fille a califourchon sur un satyre). The Satyrs' Dance (Danse de satyres). Institutional cataloguing adds that the Little Park (Le petit parc). Institutional cataloguing adds that the Tax Collectors (Les traitants).