Painting

Jean-Honoré Fragonard: The Master of Rococo Elegance

Exploring the Lush, Playful World of an 18th-Century Artistic Genius

16 August 2024268 Views

Rococo is the art of joy.
Antoine Quatremère de Quincy

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a prominent Rococo painter, was born into a modest family and moved to Paris around 1738. Initially apprenticed to a lawyer, his talent for drawing led him to study painting under François Boucher. After completing his training, he won a Prix de Rome scholarship in 1756 and studied at the French Academy in Rome, where he copied works by Roman Baroque artists and made numerous sketches with his friend, Hubert Robert. Returning to Paris, Fragonard gained recognition with his large painting Coresus and Callirhoë (1765), which was purchased by King Louis XV. Despite his success, he gradually withdrew from public exhibitions after 1767, focusing on landscapes, portraits, and sensuous outdoor scenes like The Swing. His admiration for artists like Rembrandt, Rubens, and Hals influenced his later work, including a series of vigorous portraits and heads of old men.

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In 1769, Fragonard married Marie-Anne Gérard and received prestigious commissions, including decorating Mme du Barry’s Pavillon de Louveciennes. However, the Rococo style of these works clashed with the Neoclassical tastes of the time, leading to their rejection. His admiration for Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals, and a Venetian contemporary, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, emerges in a large series of loosely and vigorously executed heads of old men, painted probably between 1760-1770 (Head of an Old Man, 1768/70), followed by a series of portraits (c. 1765-72) in a similar style and in which the sitters were real persons, but their fantastic costumes were emphasized rather than their facial expressions.

Fragonard’s later years were marked by shifts toward Neoclassical themes and a focus on domestic scenes inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy. The French Revolution, however, ended his career, as his Rococo style fell out of favor. Despite brief support from Jacques-Louis David, Fragonard lived his final years in obscurity, dying in 1806. His work remained underappreciated until after 1850, but he is now regarded as one of the great poetic painters of 18th-century France, with a prolific output of over 550 paintings and several thousand drawings.