 | Jean-Honoré Fragonard (artist) French, 1732 - 1806 Young Girl Reading, c. 1770 oil on canvas overall: 81.1 x 64.8 cm (31 15/16 x 25 1/2 in.) framed: 104.9 x 89.5 x 2.2 cm (41 5/16 x 35 1/4 x 7/8 in.) Gift of Mrs. Mellon Bruce in memory of her father, Andrew W. Mellon 1961.16.1 On View |
From the Tour: 18th-Century France — Boucher and Fragonard
Object 6 of 8
Object 6 of 8
Fragonard painted several young girls in moments of quiet solitude. These works are not portraits but evocations, similar to the "fantasy portraits" Fragonard made of acquaintances as personifications of poetry and music. He painted these very quickly—in an hour, according to friends—using bold, energetic strokes. A Young Girl Reading is painted over such a fantasy portrait and shares its brilliant technique. The girl's dress and cushion are painted with quick and fluid strokes, in broad unblended bands of startling color: saffron, lilac, and magenta. Her fingers are defined by mere swerves of the brush. Using the wooden tip of a brush, Fragonard scratched her ruffed collar into the surface of the paint. This is the "swordplay of the brush" that Fragonard's contemporaries described, not always with universal approval. His spontaneous brushwork, rather than the subject, becomes the focus of the painting. Fragonard explored the point at which a simple trace of paint becomes a recognizable form, dissolving academic distinctions between a sketch and finished painting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Honor%C3%A9_Fragonard
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Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806) | The Love Letter | early 1770s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Honor%C3%A9_Fragonard
| Jean-Honoré Fragonard | |
|---|---|
From a self-portrait, at the Musée Fragonard
| |
| Born | Jean-Honoré Nicolas Fragonard[1] 5 April 1732 Grasse, France |
| Died | 22 August 1806 (aged 74) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | Chardin, Boucher, French Academy in Rome, Charles-André van Loo |
| Known for | Painting, drawing, etching |
| Notable work(s) | The Swing, A Young Girl Reading, The Bolt |
| Movement | Rococo |
| Awards | Prix de Rome
Fragonard’s “fantasy figures” may look like they belong together. But do they really? And even if so, is “Young Girl Reading” actually one of them?
CLUE: Take another look. All of the other models face the viewer. They seem to be portraits. But “Young Girl Reading” is painted in profile, looking at her book. She is not engaged with the viewer at all. Her pose suggests a genre painting (a scene from everyday life), rather than a portrait of a specific person.
As a result, although “Young Girl Reading” has been compared with Fragonard’s “fantasy figure” series, she has never been considered a fully-fledged part of the ensemble.
(From left to right)
Top row: “Portrait of a Man,” c. 1769, Musée du Louvre “The Warrior (Portrait of a Man)”, c. 1769, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute “Portrait of La Bretèche”, c. 1769, Musée du Louvre
Middle row:
“Portrait of a Woman”, c. 1769, Musée du Louvre “Young Girl Reading,”c. 1770, National Gallery of Art “ Portrait of Saint-Non,” c. 1769, Musée du Louvre
Bottom row:
“Portrait of a Man”, c. 1769,Musée du Louvre “ Portrait of a Man,” c. 1769, Art Institute of Chicago “Woman with a Dog”, c. 1769, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s “Young Girl Reading” has had many admirers since coming into the Gallery’s collection in 1961 as a gift from Ailsa Mellon Bruce. President John F. Kennedy was “enraptured,” according to former Gallery director John Walker.
Image: Gallery Archives
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