Having won a student competition in Paris, Fragonard was awarded four years of study at the Académie de France in Rome. Made not long after his arrival, this theatrical landscape drawing displays a hybrid of influences. His early training in Boucher’s studio is evident in the feathery trees and charming genre figures, including the woman pushing a wheelbarrow and the man peering over a fence. Scattered throughout the composition are various architectural motifs—a palatial staircase, columned temples, and a statue of an ancient Roman goddess—that reflect his exposure to the gardens of Italy.
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Medium:Black chalk, brush and gray wash, touches of black and brown wash; framing lines in pen and black ink
Dimensions:10 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (27.3 x 39.4 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1952
Accession Number:52.14
Inscription: on verso in graphite: W.C.A. 1329
Comte de Montesquiou; Otto Wertheimer, Paris by 1951; Vendor: Knoedler and Co. (French, British, American)
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections, Washington, Cambridge and New York, 1979," November 19, 1978–January 21, 1979.
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums. "Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections, Washington, Cambridge and New York, 1979," February 16, 1979–April 1, 1979.
The Frick Collection. "Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections, Washington, Cambridge and New York, 1979," April 20, 1979–June 3, 1979.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Three Masters of Landscape, Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts," November 10, 1981–December 27, 1981.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Fragonard," September 24, 1987–January 4, 1988.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fragonard," February 2–May 8, 1988.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 5, 1997–March 8, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fragonard: Drawing Triumphant," October 6, 2016–January 8, 2017.
Bean and Turcic 1986.115
Alexandre Ananoff L'oeuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806): Catalogue raisonné. vol. 4, Paris, 1970, cat. no. 2215, p. 105.
Eunice Williams, National Gallery of Art Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, cat. no. 6, ill.
Jean Montague Massengale "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections" Burlington Magazine. vol. 121, London, 1979, pp. 271-272.
Pinkney L. Near Three Masters of Landscape. Exh. cat., Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond, 1981, cat. no. 8, p. 23, ill.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th-18th Century French Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, cat. no. 115, pp. 110-111, ill.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin "Fragonard dans les musées français: quelques tableaux reconsidérés ou discutésde France" La Revue du Louvre et des Musées. XXXVIe année, Paris, 1986, pp. 58 and 61.
Pierre Rosenberg, Katharine Baetjer Fragonard. Ex. cat.: Grand Palais, Paris, 24 Sept. 1987-4 Jan. 1988 and Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2 Feb.-8 May, 1988. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris and New York, 1987, cat. no. 38, pp. 116-117, ill.
Perrin Stein, Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey, Eunice Williams, Kelsey Brosnan Fragonard--Drawing Triumphant. New York, 2016, cat. no. 2, 76-77, ill.
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