Jean-Honoré Fragonard French, 1732-1806

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732, Grasse, France – 1806, Paris, France) 

Born in Grasse as the son of a glove maker, Fragonard was first trained by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and later by François Boucher. He masterfully developed Boucher’s elegant visual language, infusing it with a new sense of lightness and dynamism. 
After several study trips to Italy, Fragonard was admitted to the Paris Academy in 1765 and exhibited at the Salon. However, he chose not to pursue an official career path, preferring instead to work for private patrons with a keen appreciation for art. His works are marked by a distinctive style that deliberately breaks away from academic conventions. 

Fragonard’s paintings and drawings – often spontaneous and sketch-like – reveal a strong temperament and a deep fascination with the artistic process itself. Yet this seemingly carefree aesthetic did not align with the spirit of the French Revolution and the didactic art of the Enlightenment. During this period, public interest in his work waned. Fragonard died in poverty in Paris in 1806 at the age of 74. It was not until more than half a century later, during the Romantic era, that his art was rediscovered and his free, emotional expressiveness newly appreciated.