The painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) demonstrated remarkable drive in his career, which encompassed a variety of styles. A southern-born painter from Grasse, a town among olive groves and vineyards in Provence, he won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1752 and made good use of his time in the Eternal City, though he sometimes felt … Continue reading French painting during the XVIII Century, IV. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Élisabeth Louise ...| The Artistic Adventure of Mankind
As the Dutch had done before, some 18th-century French painters displayed a strong connection with the environments they depicted. This is particularly evident in the paintings of Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin (1699–1779), a reserved and quiet man whose fervent realism was almost a protest against purely formalist art. Much of his work is a glorification of … Continue reading French painting during the XVIII Century, III. The realism of Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin, other portraitists, ...| The Artistic Adventure of Mankind
The 18th century in France was extraordinarily complex in both thought and art, as it combined a new conception of life with the exaltation of individualism and an incessant analysis of the possibilities of intelligence and sensitivity. In the previous essay, we observed this century from an angle that highlighted one of its aspects—the embellishment … Continue reading French painting during the XVIII Century, I. Jean-Antoine Watteau’s melancholic elegance.| The Artistic Adventure of Mankind