text stringlengths 0 3.13k |
|---|
Jean-Honoré Fragonard was born in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, France the only child of François Fragonard, a glover, and Françoise Petit. |
Fragonard was apprenticed to a Paris notary when his father's circumstances became strained through unsuccessful speculations, but showed such talent and inclination for art that he was taken at the age of eighteen to François Boucher. Boucher recognized the youth's rare gifts but, disinclined to waste his time with one so inexperienced, sent him to Chardin's atelier. Fragonard studied for a short time with Chardin then returned more fully equipped 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 now 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. The portrait of Diderot (1769) has recently had its attribution to Fragonard called into question. |
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, herself a painter of miniatures, (1745–1823) 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. |
Fragonard returned to Paris early in the nineteenth century. On 21 August 1806, the 74-year-old painter consumed a dish of shaved ice on a hot day in Paris and became ill. He died the next day. His friend Greuse designed a monument to him. Fragonard was almost forgotten at his death; his sensual artworks had fallen out of fashion in the stormy revolutionary era when artistic trends in France shifted to depicting more heroic and martial subjects. |
Reputation |
For half a century or more, Fragonard was so completely ignored that Wilhelm Lübke's 1873 art history volume omits mention of his name. Later re-evaluations have re-identified his position among the all-time masters of French painting. The influence of his handling of local colour and expressive, confident brushstroke on the Impressionists (particularly his grand niece, Berthe Morisot, and Renoir) is undoubtable. Fragonard's paintings, alongside those of François Boucher, seem to sum up an era. |
One of Fragonard's most renowned paintings is The Swing, also known as The Happy Accidents of the Swing (its original title), an oil painting in the Wallace Collection in London. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the rococo era, and is Fragonard's best-known work. The painting portrays a young gentleman concealed in the bushes, observing a lady on swing being pushed by her spouse, who is standing in the background, hidden in the shadows, as he is unaware of the affair. As the lady swings forward, the young man gets a glimpse under her dress. |
According to Charles Collé's memoirs a young nobleman had requested this portrait of his mistress seated on a swing. He asked first Gabriel François Doyen to make this painting of him and his mistress. Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard. |
References within art and literature |
Fragonard's art finds itself embedded within writer's stories, as within the text The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald there is a portion in the story in which Peter L. Hays in the article "Fitzgerald and Fragonard" states that Fitzgerald alludes to Fragonard's paintings both implied and explicitly. The first art piece Fitzgerald alludes to is The Swing, as the character Nick within The Great Gatsby as he describes what he sees as women swinging in Versailles while a man looks up the skirt of a woman. The is the explicit description that Fitzgerald gives the readers as a clue that alludes to Jean-Honoré Fragonard's painting The Swing. Hays also claims that F. Scott Fitzgerald is alluding to a second painting of Fragonard which is his rendering of Etienne Maurice Falconet's "Cupid the Admonisher" in which Cupid is seen with his finger on his lips referencing the clandestine nature of what the character Nick in The Great Gatsby is looking at. This is because the man that is seen in Fragonard's The Swing has a perfect view of the young woman's underside of her dress. |
Octave Mirbeau's short story The Little Summer-House in the collective book "French Decadent Tales" by Stephen Romer directly references Fragonard's art pieces when an unnamed character is taken into a bathroom and is stuck between two emotions disapproval or pleasure. |
Fragonard's art also finds itself within not only stories, but poems as well. The poem The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner by William Butler Yeats, in which he uses the description of a broken tree and a woman that turns her face as another allusion to Fragonard's The Swing once again, as the branch the woman uses to swing on is broken and facing the viewer. |
Fragonard's art finds itself in a poem passage The Waste Land written by T.S Eliot which visually depicts the "carvéd dolphin" surmounted by winged cupids in Fragonard’s Progress of Love: The Pursuit. |
Fragonard is also referenced in a novel written by Milan Kundera Slowness which talks about Fragonards paintings Progress of Love, which shows the progress of love, from pursuing, love letters, and crowning the lover, which shows the slowness of pursuing a lover. |
There have also been many artistic installations inspired Fragonard's work, some including actual recreations of his paintings come to life. The Swing (After Fragonard) is a 2001 exhibit that physically recreates Fragonard's The Swing, creating a real life exhibit of the famous scene of the girl swinging. Artist Yinka Shonibare CBE puts his own spin on Fragonard's work, such as using a mannequin wearing a dress made of frilly African print fabric, or choosing to not give the mannequin a head or face. He also keeps the background a neutral white with wooden flooring, which contrasts the bright colors of the dress, and the many flowers he plants at the base of the exhibit. He keeps the flying shoe as seen in the actual painting, as well as the suggestive and upbeat pose of a girl swinging midair, ensuring that the sculpture still closely reflects Fragonard's The Swing, even with the different renditions of Shonibare. |
Artist Cy Twombly also references Fragonard in his 1928 painting "Untitled." He takes elements of Fragonard's work and reinterprets them in his own abstract and expressive style. "Untitled" is an abstract piece made up of loose and energetic lines that portray motion and vigor. The palette of Twombly's painting is close to the famous work of Fragonard in that it uses light and airy colors, while representing a sort of sexual and provocative energy. |
Work |
Jean-Honoré Fragonard |
Recent exhibitions |
Consuming Passion : Fragonard's Allegories of Love Archived 3 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine – 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 Archived 29 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine – 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 |
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. |
See also |
Honoré Fragonard |
History of painting |
Western painting |
Jeroboam Sacrificing to Idols |
References and sources |
References |
Sources |
Books |
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fragonard, Jean-Honoré". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 772–773. |
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt (1881–1882). "Fragonard". L'Art du XVIIIe siècle. Vol. III. G. Charpentier. p. 241. ISBN 978-2-35548-008-9. Archived from the original on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2009. |
Eva-Gesine Baur (2007). Rococo. Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8228-5306-1. |
Jean Montague Massengale (1993). Jean-Honore Fragonard. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-3313-6. |
Articles and webpages |
Lajer-Burcharth, Ewa (2003). "Fragonard in Detail". Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. 14 (3): 34–56. doi:10.1215/10407391-14-3-34. ISSN 1040-7391. S2CID 144003749. |
Simon, Jonathan (2002). "The Theater of Anatomy: The Anatomical Preparations of Honore Fragonard". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 36 (1): 63–79. doi:10.1353/ecs.2002.0066. ISSN 0013-2586. S2CID 162293464. |
Sheriff, Mary D. (1987). "Invention, Resemblance, and Fragonard's Portraits de Fantaisie". Art Bulletin. 69 (1): 77–87. doi:10.1080/00043079.1987.10788403. ISSN 0004-3079. |
Ferrand, Franck (2008). "Monsieur Fragonard". France Today. Vol. 23, no. 2. pp. 30–31. ISSN 0895-3651. |
McEwen, J. (1988). "Fragonard: Rococo or romantic?". Art in America. Vol. 76, no. 2. p. 84. ISSN 0004-3214. |
Milam, Jennifer (1998). "Fragonard and the blindman's game: Interpreting representations of Blindman's Buff". Art History. 21 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1111/1467-8365.00090. ISSN 0141-6790. |
Milam, Jennifer (2000). "Playful Constructions and Fragonard's Swinging Scenes". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 33 (4): 543–559. doi:10.1353/ecs.2000.0042. ISSN 0013-2586. S2CID 162283094. |
"Cy Twombly: Untitled." The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/4098. Accessed 15 March 2024. |
Tate. "‘The Swing (after Fragonard)’, Yinka Shonibare CBE, 2001." Tate, 1 January 1970, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shonibare-the-swing-after-fragonard-t07952. |
Further reading |
Dore Ashton (1988). Fragonard in the Universe of Painting. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 0-87474-208-0. |
Mary Sheriff (1990). Fragonard: Art and Eroticism. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-75273-9. |
Jean-Pierre Cuzin (1988). Jean-Honore Fragonard: Life and Work. Complete Catalogue of the Oil Paintings. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-0949-9. |
David Wakefield (1976). Fragonard. London: Oresko Books. ISBN 0-905368-01-0. |
Georges Wildenstein (1960). The Paintings of Fragonard. Phaidon. |
Martha Richler (1997). "18th century". National Gallery of Art Washington A World of Art. Scala Publishers Ltd. ISBN 1-85759-187-9. |
Percival, Melissa (2017) [2012]. Fragonard and the Fantasy Figure: Painting the Imagination. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4094-0137-7 – via Google Books. |
Milton W. Brown, George R. Collins, Beatrice Farwell, Jane G. Mahler and Margaretta Salinger, "Jean-Honoré Fragonard" in Encyclopedia of Painting: Painters and Paintings of the World from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day, Myers S. Bernard (ed), Crown, 1955. pp182–83. |
External links |
Media related to Jean-Honoré Fragonard at Wikimedia Commons |
Web Gallery of Art: Jean-Honoré Fragonard |
Fragonard's Biography, Style and Artworks |
Olga's Gallery |
Jean-Honoré Fragonard's Cats |
Biography at Project Gutenberg |
Works by Jean-Honoré Fragonard at Open Library |
Fragonard works at the National Gallery of Art |
Jean-Honoré Fragonard |
Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (French: [ʒɑ̃ lwi ɛʁnɛst mɛsɔnje]; 21 February 1815 – 31 January 1891) was a French academic painter and sculptor. He became famous for his depictions of Napoleon, his armies and military themes. He documented sieges and manoeuvres and was the teacher of Édouard Detaille. |
Meissonier enjoyed great success in his lifetime, and was acclaimed both for his mastery of fine detail and assiduous craftsmanship. The English art critic John Ruskin examined his work at length under a magnifying glass, "marvelling at Meissonier's manual dexterity and eye for fascinating minutiae". |
Meissonier's work commanded enormous prices and in 1846 he purchased a great mansion in Poissy, sometimes known as the Grande Maison. The Grande Maison included two large studios, the atelier d'hiver, or winter workshop, situated on the top floor of the house, and at ground level, a glass-roofed annexe, the atelier d'été or summer workshop. Meissonier himself said that his house and temperament belonged to another age, and some, like the critic Paul Mantz for example, criticised the artist's seemingly limited repertoire. Like Alexandre Dumas, he excelled at depicting scenes of chivalry and masculine adventure against a backdrop of pre-Revolutionary and pre-industrial France, specialising in scenes from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century life. |
Biography |
Ernest Meissonier was born in Lyon. His father, Charles, had been a successful businessman, the proprietor of a factory in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, that made dyes for the textile industry. He expected Ernest, the eldest of his two sons, to follow him into the dye business. Yet from his schooldays Ernest showed a taste for painting, to which some early sketches, dated 1823, bear witness. After being placed with a druggist in the Rue des Lombards, at age seventeen, he obtained leave from his parents to become an artist. Following the recommendation of a painter named Potier, himself a second class Prix de Rome, he was admitted to Léon Cogniet's studio. He also formed his style after the Dutch masters as represented in the Louvre. |
He paid short visits to Rome and to Switzerland, and exhibited in the Salon of 1831 a painting then called Les Bourgeois Flamands (Dutch Burghers), but also known as The Visit to the Burgomaster, subsequently purchased by Sir Richard Wallace, in whose collection (at Hertford House, London) it is, with fifteen other examples of this painter. It was the first attempt in France in the particular genre which was destined to make Meissonier famous: microscopic painting miniature in oils. Working hard for daily bread at illustrations for the publishers Curmer, Hetzel and Dubocherhe, Meissonier also exhibited at the Salon of 1836 with Chess Player and the Errand Boy. |
In 1838 Meissonier married a Protestant woman from Strasbourg named Emma Steinhel, the sister of M. Steinheil, one of his artistic companions. Two children were born in due course; Thérèse (1840), and Charles. On the birth registration of his daughter he described himself as a "painter of history". |
After some not very happy attempts at religious painting, he returned, under the influence of Antoine-Marie Chenavard, to the class of work he was born to excel in, and exhibited with much success the Game of Chess (1841), the Young Man playing the 'Cello (1842), Painter in his Studio (1843), The Guard Room, the Young Man looking at Drawings, the Game of Piquet (1845), and the Game of Bowls, works which show the finish and certainty of his technique, and assured his success. |
Meissonier became known as the French Metsu, a reference to the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Gabriel Metsu, who specialised in miniature scenes of bourgeois domestic life; "grandiose history paintings did not sell as readily as smaller canvases such as landscapes or portraits, which fitted more easily onto the walls of Paris apartments". He specialised in scenes from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century life, portraying his bonshommes, or goodfellows - playing chess, smoking pipes, reading books, sitting before easels or double basses, or posing in the uniforms of musketeers or halberdiers [-] all executed in microscopic detail. Typical examples include Halt at an Inn, owned by the Duc de Morny and The Brawl, which was owned by Queen Victoria. |
After his Soldiers (1848) he began A Day in June, which was never finished, and exhibited A Smoker (1849) and Bravos (Les Bravi, 1852). In 1855 he touched the highest mark of his achievement with The Gamblers and The Quarrel (La Rixe), which was presented by Napoleon III to the English Court. His triumph was sustained at the Salon of 1857, when he exhibited nine pictures, and drawings; among them the Young Man of the Time of the Regency, The Painter, The Shoeing Smith, The Musician, and A Reading at Diderot's. When, in the summer of 1859, Emperor Napoleon III, together with Victor Emmanuel II King of Piedmont and Sardinia, tried to oust the Habsburgs from their territories in northern Italy, Meissonier received a government commission to illustrate scenes from the campaign. The Emperor Napoleon III at Solferino took Meissonier more than three years to complete. The work, a battle scene, represented something of a departure for the painter of bonshommes and musketeers though Meissonier had already painted scenes of violence and massacre, such as Remembrance of Civil War, and in 1848 had indeed seen active service as a captain in the National Guard, when he fought on the side of the republican government during the June Days. In autumn 1861 he was elected to a chair in the Institut de France when the members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts voted for him to join their number. To the Salon of 1861 he sent A Shoeing Smith, A Musician, A Painter, and M. Louis Fould; to that of 1864 The Emperor at Solferino, and 1814. He subsequently exhibited A Gamblers' Quarrel (1865) and Desaix and the Army of the Rhine (1867). |
In June 1868 Meissonier travelled to Antibes with canvas and easel, together with his wife, son and daughter, and two of his horses, Bachelier and Lady Coningham. He may have been attracted there for historical reasons—in 1794 Napoleon had been imprisoned in Fort Carré, and in 1815, returning from exile on Elba in 1815 he had come ashore at Golfe-Jouan—and the island of Sainte-Marguerite where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned 1686–1698, was a little out to sea. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.