Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Fragonard


The Love Letter
Hello My Dear Friends! I do hope the holidays treated you well. My family & I had a beautiful Christmas as it was my sons First birthday (he's a Christmas baby) it was especially magical! It seems as though Christmas has a whole new meaning, everything is more special and our family traditions even more meaningful and important! I wish you all a very happy and love filled New Year!! Thank you deeply for the beautiful comments and well wishes left for me!

The Two Sisters

I have always loved Jean~Honore Fragonard. He has long been a favorite of mine. A copy of his painting The Swing hung in our foyer for years and I remember being a little girl looking at it (my mother also a lover of all things French and an interior designer). After reading a wonderful post by Lauren of Marie~Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century about The Pursuit by Fragonard, I thought I would post some of my favorite works. Enjoy!

A Woman with a Dog
Although it is very hard to pick my all~time favorite painting by Jean~Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), it was so fun to browse his works and learn more about the man, the painter, and his legacy.
French painter of the rococo age, Jean~Honore Fragonard, was popular in the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI for his delicately colored scenes of romance, often in garden settings. Born in Grasse on April 5. 1732, Fragonard moved with his family to Paris in 1738. He spent some time in the busy studio of François Boucher before successfully competing for the Prix de Rome in 1752. In 1756, Fragonard was sent to Italy as a pensioner of the crown; he remained at there until 1761. From the numerous black chalk copies he executed there, it is clear that he held masters of the Baroque in the highest esteem. He also produced brilliant red chalk drawings of the gardens of the Villa d'Este and painted small cabinet-size paintings for French private collectors living in Rome. The Stolen Kiss was painted for the bailiff of Breteuil, French ambassador to the Order of Malta in Rome.
The Swing

The Portrait of a Woman with a Dog is related to an inventive series of imaginary portraits referred to collectively as the Figures de fantaisie. They feature archaic costumes and brushwork so rapid and undisguised that it would have previously been associated with oil sketches rather than finished works.


Fragonard's masterpiece is the series of large panel paintings commissioned by Madame du Barry, for the château de Louveciennes. While the iconography of the series continues to be debated by scholars, the subjects can generally be described as lovers in various stages of romantic involvement in lush, overgrown gardens full of mythological statuary, and cascading flowers. A dispute with du Barry led to the paintings being returned to him and replaced by another artist. After the French Revolution, he held administrative positions at the Louvre, but his work had fallen from favor and he died in relative obscurity and penniless in 1806.

The Stolen Kiss

His paintings are largely known for the scandal they created. For example, The Swing became an immediate success, not merely for its artistic excellence, but for the scandal behind it. The young nobleman is getting an interesting view up the lady's skirts, not only that, but she is being pushed by her priest-lover, shown in the rear.

The Meeting

In the same spirit are some other famous pictures, The See-Saw, Blindman's Bluff, The Stolen Kiss, and the Meeting. After his marriage in 1769, he began painting children and family scenes and even painted religious subjects. He stopped exhibiting publicly in 1770 and all his later works are commissions from private patrons.


Blindman's Bluff
To me, Fragonard embodies the spirit of the ancien regime on the eve of the revolution. The soft palate and mutes tones, the images of love, courtship, frivolity, coquettish young ladies in voluminous clothes, and frothy flowers in lush gardens. What a wondrous and fantastical place these paintings can take us!
Bisou Mon Amis!

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10 comments:

  1. Happy New year! Christmas is made even more special with a little one! We have 3 (not so little anymore) and I love looking back on all the video and pictures of all the fun holidays (they are 14, 11 and 9 now). Thank you for your wonderful post with the beautiful paintings and all the great information about Fragonard - I learned a lot!!

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  2. Sometimes I'm just too innocent! I was selecting my favorites from your "gallery" and thought "The Swing" was charming...looking up her skirts! Priest lover! I'll never look at that painting in the same way. Seriously, don't you feel a bit bothered by the faces? I know the lush flowers are heaven, and the color combinations, compositions, the light...yes, the light, but some of those faces look disproportionate. Excuse me and my honesty. I'm suffering from blogger's angst today. Best to change the subject...What a joy to celebrate your son's first birthday during the holidays.You seem like a devoted mother and kind person, how fortunate for your son and family!

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  3. I don't know about you, Judith. From dirt bikes to Fragonard!!! I love Fragonard too. Have a very Happy New Year! I hope a trip to Paris is in your plans for 09. Looking forward to all your future, wonderful posts.
    Catherine

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  4. What a wonderful post! I must admit, when I read the title, I immediately thought of the charming store in Paris called Fragonard - am I correct that it is called this? It has the most wonderful linens, perfumes, soaps and such. There is one location on Avenue Germaine.

    Thank you for educating me on Fragonard the artists!

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  5. Beautiful post-I have always loved Fragonard and have also suspected that I was, in a past life , French.
    Happy New Year!

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  6. Loved your layout on Fragonard! My youngest boy has a birthday 4 days after Christmas, so we know about those Christmas boys...unfortunately, mine got pneumonia for his 6th birthday, so we're going to have to pick a different birthday to adequately celebrate this year. Oh well, a party in your honor is still a party in your honor, right? Enjoy your wonderful baby boy. They grow so fast, but fortunately, each stage is wonderful. ENJOY and thanks for stopping by.

    All the best,
    Judy

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  7. What a great post! Don't you just love The Stolen Kiss??? I swear if I could have a room in my house covered in his works....sigh!

    Happy New Year!
    Lauren

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  8. At first I thought the post was going to be about the Perfume and Cosmetic Company with the same name. I just did a post on them and the Perfume Musuem in Paris.

    I love this artist as well, such rich colors. "The Swing" is probably my favorite though.

    Happy New Year!!

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  9. I just adore this post, great lesson.
    Glad to find someone to share my interest with.

    Happy New Year,
    from Ingela

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  10. I just adore this post, great lesson.
    Glad to find someone to share my interest with.

    Happy New Year,
    from Ingela

    ReplyDelete

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