Jean-Honoré Fragonard
He painted the dizzying, flirtatious spirit of pre-Revolutionary France with a brush that seemed to dance across the canvas.
1732–1806 (age 74)·French Rococo painter·Birthday: April 5
Biography
Jean-Honoré Fragonard emerged from the sun-drenched south of France to become the defining painter of the Rococo's final, most spirited act. Trained under masters like Chardin and Boucher, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome but ultimately forged a path outside the official Salon, creating works for a private, pleasure-seeking aristocracy. His canvases are worlds of lush gardens, billowing silk, and stolen kisses, executed with a breathtaking speed and fluidity that made his scenes feel breathless and alive. Fragonard's career evaporated with the French Revolution, his style synonymous with the decadence the new order sought to erase, yet his work endures as a masterful capture of a society chasing delight on the edge of an abyss.
#1 When Jean-Honoré Was Born
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Jean-Honoré's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1732Born
1737Started school
1745Became a teenager
1748Could drive
1750Could vote
1753Turned 21
1762Turned 30
1772Turned 40
1782Turned 50
1792Turned 60
1802Turned 70
1806Died at 74
Key Achievements
- Won the Prix de Rome in 1752, securing study at the French Academy in Rome.
- Painted 'The Swing' (c. 1767), arguably the most famous and emblematic work of the late Rococo period.
- Created a series of decorative panels known as 'The Progress of Love' for Madame du Barry's pavilion at Louveciennes.
- Produced an immense body of over 550 paintings, though only a handful bear dates.
- His rapid, sketch-like technique influenced later Impressionists like Renoir.
Did You Know?
Only five of his more than 550 paintings are definitively dated.
He was the son of a glove-maker from Grasse, the perfume capital of France.
During the Revolution, he found protection and employment on the committee organizing the new national museum, the Louvre.
His granddaughter was the celebrated Romantic painter and memoirist, Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot.
“I paint with my heart, not with my hand.”
