Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)—one of the most forward-looking and inventive artists of the 18th century—was equally skilled in painting, drawing, and etching. Unlike many old masters for whom drawing was a preparatory tool, Fragonard explored the potential of chalk, ink, and wash to create sheets that were works of art in their own right. As displays of virtuosity and an imaginative spirit, his drawings have been prized highly from his own day to the present, and New York has long been a center for collecting these works.

This exhibition celebrates the artist's achievements as a master draftsman. Among the 100 works on paper on view, nearly half are from private collections, some of which are being shown publicly for the first time. A similar brio and inventiveness mark the artist's etchings, and examples of these are also featured in the selection. The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see well-loved masterpieces alongside new discoveries and works that have long been out of the public eye.

French Riviera Paintings

Vertumnus and Pomona - François Boucher (French, Paris 1703–1770 Paris) - Medium: Brown chalk - Accession Number: 60.176.2

An Angel Bringing Food to a Hermit - Date: ca. 1750–56 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 49.36.8

View of a Park - Date: ca. 1757–59 - Medium: Black chalk, gray wash, touches of black and brown wash, framing lines in pen and black ink - Accession Number: 52.14

Gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli - Charles Joseph Natoire (French, Nîmes 1700–1777 Castel Gandolfo) - Date: 1760 - Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash, watercolor, heightened with white, over black and red chalk - Accession Number: 65.65

A Park Landscape - Date: ca. 1759-60 - Medium: Two colors of red chalk

Capriccio: Excavation of Roman Ruins - Date: ca. 1760-62 - Medium: Brush and brown and gray wash and watercolor over black chalk on antique laid paper

Figures in Classical Ruins - Giovanni Paolo Panini (Italian, Piacenza 1691–1765 Rome) - Date: 1691–1765 - Medium: Pen and brown ink, brown wash, gray wash over black chalk - Accession Number: 80.3.130

Study of Plants, Including Acanthus - Date: ca. 1759 - Medium: Red chalk on white antique laid paper

View of the Entry to Genoa, Seen from below the Terrace of the Palazzo Doria - Date: 1761 - Medium: Black chalk

Life Study: Deacon Carrying a Book - Date: ca. 1758-59 - Medium: Red chalk

Landscape with a Villa - Date: ca. 1761 - Medium: Red chalk over black chalk

Hercules and Cacus, after Annibale Carracci, and the Destruction of Enceladus, after Agostino Carracci - Date: 1761 - Medium: Black chalk, framing lines in pen and brown ink - Accession Number: 60.53

Saint Celestine V Renouncing the Papacy, after Mattia Preti - Date: 1761 - Medium: Black chalk, over a black chalk counterproof - Accession Number: 1987.239

Saint Rita Surrounded by Bees - Date: ca. 1761 - Medium: Black chalk

The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Hyacinth - Date: 1761 - Medium: Black chalk

View of the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli - Date: ca. 1760-65 - Medium: Red chalk counterproof, reworked by the artist in brown ink, brown and gray wash

The Little Park - Date: ca. 1761-63 - Medium: Red chalk

The Little Park - Date: ca. 1761-63 - Medium: Red chalk

The Little Park - Date: ca. 1763 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 2011.91

The Little Park - Date: ca. 1763-65 - Medium: Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown and gray wash and some white gouache (at lower left), over a red chalk counterproof

The Little Park - Date: ca. 1765 - Medium: Gouache on vellum

Study for "A Gathering at Wood's Edge" - Date: ca. 1770-73 - Medium: Red chalk

A Gathering at Wood's Edge - Date: ca. 1770–73 - Medium: Red chalk - Accession Number: 1995.101

Sketch of "Landscape with Stormy Sky - Date: ca. 1766 - Medium: Brush and brown, black, and gray wash, with touches of white gouache mixed in

Landscape with Stormy Sky - Date: ca. 1770-75 - Medium: Brown and gray wash with watercolor over black chalk

Farm Buildings beside a Waterway - Date: ca. 1765 - Medium: Red chalk over traces of black chalk underdrawing

Farm Buildings beside a Waterway - Date: ca. 1765–70 - Medium: Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash - Accession Number: 1972.118.212

Draftsman in a Trellised Garden - Date: 1770s - Medium: Black chalk - Accession Number: 1975.1.626

Rinaldo in the Enchanted Forest - Date: ca. 1763 - Medium: Brown wash over very light black chalk underdrawing - Accession Number: 2009.236

Coresus and Callirhoë - Date: 1765 or later - Medium: Brown wash over black chalk underdrawing

Young Athenian Women Drawing Lots - Date: ca. 1765-66 - Medium: Brown and gray wash with red, yellow, and blue watercolor over black chalk underdrawing

The Inspiration of the Artist - Medium: Pen, brown ink, and wash over black chalk within pen and brown ink framing lines

Foliage Study: Branches of a Chestnut Tree - Date: ca. 1765 - Medium: Red chalk

The Service Yard of a Château, with Poultry - Date: ca. 1770-73 - Medium: Red chalk

The Indiscreet Bull - Date: ca. 1763-65 - Medium: Brown wash over black chalk underdrawing

The Frightened Flock - Date: ca. 1765 - Medium: Brush and brown and light gray wash over black chalk

The Return of the Herd - Date: ca. 1768-69 - Medium: Brown wash over black chalk underdrawing

Shepherd and Sheep on a Sunny Hillside - Date: ca. 1768-72 - Medium: Brush and brown wash over graphite

The Stubborn Donkey - Date: 1762 - Medium: Etching

Sketch of a Family of Farm Workers - Date: 1773-78 - Medium: Black chalk

Fragonard and his Companions aboard a Boat on the Rhine - Date: 1773 - Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over black chalk underdrawing

The Château de Nègrepelisse - Date: 1773 - Medium: Red chalk

Portrait of a Magistrate - Date: 1773 - Medium: Red chalk

The Bread Oven at the Château de Nègrepelisse - Date: 1773 - Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over black chalk

Sketch of "The Bread Oven at the Château de Nègrepelisse" - Date: 1773 - Medium: Brush and brown wash over black chalk on tan paper

Man Displaying Birds - Date: 1774 - Medium: Black chalk

The Sultan - Date: 1774 - Medium: Brush and brown wash (possibly bistre) over black chalk underdrawing - Accession Number: 2008.437

Seated Man Reading - Date: 1774 - Medium: Red chalk - Accession Number: 1978.516.1

A Fisherman Pulling a Net - Date: 1774 - Medium: Red chalk - Accession Number: 2006.353.1

A Fisherman Leaning on an Oar - Date: 1774 - Medium: Red chalk - Accession Number: 2006.353.2

Portrait of a Neapolitan Woman - Date: 1774 - Medium: Brush and brown wash over faint traces of black chalk underdrawing

Diogenes - Date: 1774 - Medium: Brush and gray-brown wash over traces of black chalk underdrawing

Head of an Italian Peasant - Date: 1774 - Medium: Brush and brown wash over black chalk underdrawing

Recueil de griffonis, de vuës, paysages, fragments antiques et sujets historiques - Jean Claude Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non (French, Paris 1727–1791 Paris) - Date: ca. 1780

Saint Luke - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 57.581.32

Saint Mark - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, second state of two

Saint Catherine of Alexandria - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 59.599.31

The Flight of Cloelia - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching

The Circumcision - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, second state of two - Accession Number: 2012.136.210

The Disciples at the Tomb - Date: 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 57.581.34

The Last Supper - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 66.629.8

Fabius Maximus Before the Senate at Carthage - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two

The Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 2012.136.385

The Vision of Saint Jerome - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of three

Mythological Scene, possibly Diana Seducing Callisto - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 2011.283

Moses and Hur - Date: 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two

Angel Holding a Palm and a Crown - Date: ca. 1764 - Medium: Etching, first state of two - Accession Number: 57.581.33

Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs - Date: 1763 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 1996.328.1

The Satyr's Family - Date: 1763 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 1996.328.2

Nymph Astride a Satyr - Date: 1763 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 1996.328.3

The Satyrs' Dance - Date: 1763 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 1996.328.4

The Tax Collectors (Les Traitants) - Date: 1778 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 46.125.3

The First Riding Lesson - Date: ca. 1775-78 - Medium: Brush and brown wash over black chalk underdrawing

The Child and the Bulldog - Date: 1778 - Medium: Etching, second state of three - Accession Number: 2011.279

Interior - Date: 1778 - Medium: Etching - Accession Number: 2014.79

The Genius of Franklin - Date: 1778 - Medium: Etching printed in brown ink, first state of two - Accession Number: 83.2.230

Fanfan - Date: 1778 - Medium: Etching, third state of three - Accession Number: 1972.539.1

The Armoire - Date: 1778 - Medium: Etching, first state of four - Accession Number: 1972.539.2

Two Cypresses in an Italian Garde - Date: ca. 1774 - Medium: Two hues of red chalk with later framing lines in pen and brown ink