French Rococo Era Painter, 1732-1806 was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Regime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings , of which only five are dated. Among his most popular works are genre paintings conveying an atmosphere of intimacy and veiled eroticism. He was born at Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, the son of François Fragonard, a glover, and Françoise Petit. He was articled to a Paris notary when his father's circumstances became strained through unsuccessful speculations, but showed such talent and inclination for art that he was taken at the age of eighteen to François Boucher, who, recognizing the youth's rare gifts but disinclined to waste his time with one so inexperienced, sent him to Chardin's atelier. Fragonard studied for six months under the great luminist, then returned more fully equipped to Boucher, whose style he soon acquired so completely that the master entrusted him with the execution of replicas of his paintings. Though not yet a pupil of the Academy, Fragonard gained the Prix de Rome in 1752 with a painting of "Jeroboam Sacrificing to the Golden Calf", but before proceeding to Rome he continued to study for three years under Charles-Andre van Loo. In the year preceding his departure he painted the "Christ washing the Feet of the Apostles" now at Grasse cathedral. On September 17, 1756, he took up his abode at the French Academy in Rome, then presided over by Charles-Joseph Natoire. While at Rome, Fragonard contracted a friendship with a fellow painter, Hubert Robert. In 1760, they toured Italy together, executing numerous sketches of local scenery. It was in these romantic gardens, with their fountains, grottos, temples and terraces, that Fragonard conceived the dreams which he was subsequently to render in his art. He also learned to admire the masters of the Dutch and Flemish schools (Rubens, Hals, Rembrandt, Ruisdael), imitating their loose and vigorous brushstrokes. Added to this influence was the deep impression made upon his mind by the florid sumptuousness of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, whose works he had an opportunity to study in Venice before he returned to Paris in 1761. In 1765 his "Coresus et Callirhoe" secured his admission to the Academy. It was made the subject of a pompous (though not wholly serious) eulogy by Diderot, and was bought by the king, who had it reproduced at the Gobelins factory. Hitherto Fragonard had hesitated between religious, classic and other subjects; but now the demand of the wealthy art patrons of Louis XV's pleasure-loving and licentious court turned him definitely towards those scenes of love and voluptuousness with which his name will ever be associated, and which are only made acceptable by the tender beauty of his color and the virtuosity of his facile brushwork;   Related Paintings of Jean-Honore Fragonard :. | Die Musikstunde | The Meeting | The Progress of Love: The Pursuit | Inspiration | The Stolen Kiss |
Related Artists:
Demetrio Cosola
San Sebastiano,Po 1851-1895 Chivasso
louis masreliez
Louis Masreliez (Adrien Louis Masreliez) född 1748 i Paris död 19 mars 1810, var en svensk målare, tecknare, grafiker och inredningsarkitekt. Han var äldre bror till ornamentsbildhuggaren Jean Baptiste Masreliez och son till Jacques Adrien Masreliez, också han en ornamentsbildhuggare, som kallats till Sverige från Frankrike för att medverka vid uppförandet av Stockholms slott. Jacques Adrien Masreliez grundade således konstnärssläkten Masreliez i Sverige. Louis Masreliez kom till Sverige 1753. Han började sin utbildning vid Ritarakademien vid 10 års ålder. Vid ritarakademien saknades utbildning i måleri, varför Masreliez inledde studier vid Lorens Gottmans verkstad. 1769 tilldelades han ett statligt studiestipendium som han använde till en studieresa till Paris och Bologna. 1773 lämnade han Bologna och bosatte sig i Paris, där han bodde under åtta år. Han återvände till Sverige 1782, där han blev ledamot av Konstakademien och året därpå professor i historiemåleri. Han blev rektor för akademien 1802 och direktör 1805. Till hans genombrottsverk räknas Gustav III:s paviljong i Hagaparken
Johann Henrich Wedekind
painted Portrait of Empress Anna of Russia in 18th century