Jean-Honore+Fragonard

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French Rococo artist. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome art scholarship in 1752, which enabled him to spend five years studying and painting in Italy. Soon thereafter he built up an aristocratic clientele and gathered much more acclaim in the artistic world.

Fragonard's work is often sensually explicit with elements of veiled eroticism. He is categorized in the Rococo art historical period, an 18th century artistic movement that was a reaction to the grandeur and stricter regulations of Baroque. Rococo pieces are generally ornate with light colors and asymmetrical designs. This is seen in Fragonard's work, The Swing, in which a young woman flirtatiously kicks her shoe towards her lover who is positioned to look up her skirt as she swings back and forth in a garden.

The Swing, 1766

Self Portrait