Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a celebrated figure known for his vibrant, sensuous paintings that epitomise the exuberance and elegance of the French Enlightenment. Born in 1732 in Grasse, France, Fragonard moved to Paris in his youth in 1738. He was first admitted to Jean Siméon Chardin’s workshop, where he learned the rudiments of painting, and then applied to study under François Boucher, who, impressed by his rapid progress, admitted Fragonard as his pupil. His early exposure to Boucher’s decorative style heavily influenced his own work, which often featured lush landscapes, playful scenes and mythological subjects.

Following his stint at Boucher’s studio, Fragonard successfully competed at the Prix de Rome in 1752. He then attended the École Royale des Élèves Protégés in Paris for formal training as a history painter. In 1756 the artist was sent to Italy as a pensioner of the crown. There he remained at the French Academy in Rome until 1761, drawing inspiration from the masters of Baroque and copying works in Rome, Naples and Venice.

Upon his return to Paris, Fragonard found keen interest in his cabinet pictures, which combined the influences of Italian Baroque painting and 17th-century Dutch landscape. During this period, he further developed the painter surface of his canvases and created a series of portraits of imaginary figures referred to as the figures de fantaisie. However, the artist rejected a career as a history painter for the French royal court, instead Fragonard was beloved by 18th-century French aristocrats and received many high-profile private commissions, including from Madame du Barry, the most famous mistress of Louis XV.

One of Fragonard’s most iconic works is The Swing (1767, The Wallace Collection), which captures the essence of Rococo with its playful and flirtatious depiction of a young woman being pushed on a swing. The painting’s soft, pastel colours and subject matter exemplify the Rococo style’s focus on themes of love and frivolity. However, Fragonard’s masterful use of light and shadow evokes the dramatic chiaroscuro found in works by his favourite painter of the previous century, Rembrandt, cleverly obscuring a hidden figure that points to another layer in the narrative context of the piece. Fragonard’s mastery blended classical themes with Rococo’s characteristic sensuality and decorative richness.

In the 1770s, Fragonard embarked on a second trip to Italy. Works created during this expedition saw the artist favour the technique of brush and brown, which allowed him the same freedom and facility as his oil paintings.

Fragonard, however, did not return to an enthusiastic market in Paris. During the French Revolution, the Rococo style fell out of favour and gave way to more classical and martial subjects. Fragonard, with many of his private patrons persecuted or exiled during the revolutionary era, died in obscurity in 1806. Today, his works are housed in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in France, the Wallace Collection in London and many more.