Jean-Honore Fragonard  From New World Encyclopedia Jump to:
navigation, search  Inspiration (Self-Portrait), 1769.  Jean-
Honoré Fragonard (April 5, 1732 – August 22, 1806) is known as
one of France's most significant painters of the eighteenth
century. Fragonard was one of the favorites in the courts of
both King Louis XV and King Louis XVI. His Rococo style was
characterized by a fluid technique, exuberance, spontaneity, and
a delicate hedonism. Painting over 550 works (only 5 of which
are dated), not including his various drawings and etchings,
Fragonard's canvases were often delicately colored scenes of
gardens, nature, and romance.  He was quite prolific in the last
decades of the ancien régime, and Fragonard's portrayal of
intimacy and eroticism were among the popular works of the time
period. He was later criticized for being a purveyor of luxury
items and as an artist who abandoned noble subjects for the
erotic genre.   While the greater part of his active life
occurred during the Neoclassical period h