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Fragonard (1732-1806)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, the son of a glove maker, was born at Grasse in 1732. When he was fifteen the family moved to Paris where he was apprenticed to a notary. The skill with which he produced drawings in his spare time eventually overcame his father's objections to art as a career, and young Fragonard was placed in Chardin's studio.

In Boucher, to whom he went to study six months later, he found a spirit kindred to his own. At the age of twenty Fragonard was awarded the Prix de Rome. On his departure for Italy, Boucher said to him "My dear Frago, you are going to see Michelangelo and Raphael, but let me tell you this in friendly confidence: if you take to that kind of painting seriously, you are lost!".

His life was fortunate in that enduring recognition came to him in his earlier years.  At thirty seven Fragonard married. The influence of this event upon his life is reflected in the changed nature of his subjects. Turning away from the frivolity of the court, his paintings throughout the remainder of his life are concerned with such realities as his environment presented. His work became increasingly vogorous and even realistic in character.

Despite his republican sympathies and the intercession of his friend, the painter David, he was ousted during the turmoil of the Revolution from the studio with which the government had provided him in the Louvre. He retired with his family to Grasse. Early in the nineteenth century he returned to Paris where he died in 1806, and almost forgotten painter of a world that had meanwhile perished.

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