login    password    artist  buyer  gallery  
Not a member? Register
absolutearts.com logo HOME REGISTER BUY ART SEARCH ART TRENDS COLLECT ART ART NEWS
 
 
Indepth Arts News:

"Painting Women: Fragonard to Bouguereau"
2002-11-23 until 2003-04-27
San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego, CA, USA United States of America

Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s masterwork, A Young Girl Reading (ca. 1776), is the focal point of a special gallery installation that brings together twelve paintings of women from SDMA’s collection, including favorite works by William Bouguereau, Joaquín Sorolla, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Peter Hurd. On temporary loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Fragonard’s painting presents an image of bravura brushwork and rich color that embodies the painting aesthetics of his time, particularly in how they were applied to the depiction of women.

Fragonard (1732–1806) was the leading rococo painter of his generation during the second half of the 18th century in France. His exotic landscapes inhabited by frolicking lovers and intimate scenes of everyday life, such as A Young Girl Reading, were highly sought after by his many patrons.

The roots of Fragonard’s preoccupation with the female figure can be traced back to the very origins of Western art. Indeed, the earliest depictions of a human figure in the history of art, namely Paleolithic representations of so-called fertility goddesses, are of the female form. With classical antiquity, the human form was accepted as a canon of beauty, a tradition that has endured with tenacity in Europe. By the eighteenth century, the conventions of depicting women were so well established—and employed by artists in works ranging from religious imagery to portraiture and even unabashed voyeurism—that painters commonly used the subject, with little regard for its underlying meaning, in their investigations of style and technique. Fragonard’s painting, like those from SDMA’s collection, can thus be regarded as an opportunity to explore the painter’s creative spirit.

IMAGE:
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, (French)
A Young Girl Reading, c. 1776
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Gift of Mrs. Mellon Bruce in memory of her father,
Andrew W. Mellon, 1961:16.1,


Related Links:


YOUR FIRST STOP FOR ART ONLINE!
HELP MEDIA KIT SERVICES CONTACT


Discover over 150,000 works of contemporary art. Search by medium, subject matter, price and theme... research over 200,000 works by over 22,000 masters in the indepth art history section. Browse through new Art Blogs. Use our advanced artwork search interface.

Call for Artists, Premiere Portfolio sign-up for your Free Portfolio or create an Artist Portfolio today and sell your art at the marketplace for contemporary Art! Start a Gallery Site to exclusively showcase your gallery. Keep track of contemporary art with your free MYabsolutearts account.

 


Copyright 1995-2013. World Wide Arts Resources Corporation. All rights reserved