20 Works, October 26th. is Alexandre Fragonard's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #227

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard (1780-1850)

Saladin à Jerusalem, c. 1830-1850

    oil on canvas

126.5 x 192.5 cm

Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper

After Saladin's victory at Attin (July 4, 1187), it was Jerusalem's turn to fall under the blows of the Ayyubid forces. The siege will last from September 20 to October 2, 1187, and will see the Sultan of Egypt and Syria enter the holy city victorious. 

Alexandre-Évariste Coccinelle Fragonard (26 October 1780 - 10 November 1850) was the product of an extremely rich artistic background; he was the son of the great rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, the pupil of Jacques-Louis David, and the exact contemporary of J.-A.-D. Ingres. All these influences contributed to his artistic versatility and mastery as well as to the eclipse that his reputation suffered by comparison, and which is only recently being rectified. 

Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard

The Three Graces

Oil on canvas

Diameter 15 1/4 in.; 38.5 cm.

Private collection

This painting shows Zeus' three daughters Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia, otherwise known as the Three Graces. This sketch is characteristic of Evariste's early works which adhere to the Neoclassical taste of the time. Many of the artist's drawings of this type, produced during the Consulate and Empire, were exhibited at the Salons between 1793 and 1812, and were often reproduced as prints. More on this painting

Attributed to Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard

PARIS AND HELENA

Oil on canvas

53.3 x 69.5 cm

Private collection

Classicist conception of the ancient theme from Greek mythology. The young man, Paris, is sitting naked on a scissor chair, with a lyre he is holding on his lap and a red Phrygian cap over his blond, curly hair. In his right hand he holds the arm of young Helena, who hugs his upper body, clad in a transparent chiton and a pink peplos. In the left corner a marble column with a statue of Venus on it, attached a bow and quiver of arrows. As a counterpart, the painter has placed an antique tripod with a smoking sacrificial bowl on the right side of the picture. More on this painting

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard

Venus appears to Aeneas and prevents him from sacrificing Helena, c. 1822

Oil on canvas

228 x 179 cm

Museum of Valence

Drawn from Book II of the Aeneid, this subject follows the recommendations of the critic La Font de Saint-Yenne (1688-1771), who suggested it to artists because it was “so rich in heroic facts, pathetic narrations, and great events” . Here, Venus shows her son the futility of killing Helen, since her mission is to ensure the survival of the Trojan race by founding a new Troy… Rome. Closer to his master David (1748-1825) than to his famous father Jean-Honoré (1732-1806), Alexandre-Evariste has clearly learned his lessons: aligned composition of faces on a large diagonal with the sword of Aeneas and Helen's arms as a counterpoint; primacy of design over material; dynamic and sculpted draperies reinforcing the dramatic quality of the scene. More on this painting

After Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard

Psyché reconnaissant ses fautes devant Vénus/ Psyche recognizing her faults in front of Venus, circa 1810-25

A Paris porcelain rectangular plaque

22 x 27 cm

Private collection

Cupid deserts Psyche because Love cannot live where there is no trust. Cupid returns to his mother, Venus.

Psyche journeys all over the land to find Cupid. She decides to go to Venus herself in a plea for love and forgiveness, and when she finally sees Venus, the great goddess laughs aloud.

During his lifetime, from his beginnings as a child prodigy in the 1790’s until his death in the middle of the nineteenth century, Fragonard was a prolific and well-regarded artist. His accomplishments spanned a remarkable range of artistic endeavors, including easel and large decorative painting, sculpture, architecture, drawing, book illustration and design for prints, costumes, and Sévres porcelain.

Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard

The Oath of Junius Brutus or The Death of Lucretia, c. 1797

Oil on canvas

121x138cm

Fragonard Museum (Musée Fragonard), Grasse

Lucius Junius Brutus (fl. 6th century BC) is the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, and traditionally one of its first consuls in 509 BC. He was reputedly responsible for the expulsion of his uncle the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after the suicide of Lucretia, which led to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy.

Prior to the establishment of the Roman Republic, Rome had been ruled by kings. Brutus led the revolt that overthrew the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, after the rape of the noblewoman (and kinswoman of Brutus) Lucretia at the hands of Tarquin's son Sextus Tarquinius. 

According to Livy, Brutus' first act after the expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was to bring the people to swear an oath never to allow any man again to be king in Rome. More on the Oath of Junius Brutus

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard  (1780–1850)

Vivant Denon repositioning the remains of the Cid in his tomb, c. 1811

Oil on canvas

Height: 40.0 cm; Width: 35.0 cm

Antoine-Lécuyer museum 

Dominique-Vivant Denon was a French painter, printmaker, illustrator and author. As diplomat under the Ancien Régime, he served Napoleon as supervisor of the scholars sent with his Egyptian campaign, and afterwards as director of the Musée Napoleon (Louvre). As organizer of the Salon exhibitions under the empire he had great powers of patronage and largely dictated the programs of the pictures of the Napoleonic campaigns painted by Gros and others. His taste was eclectic and he also encouraged young artists, such as Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard.

Denon had a passion for collecting relics of the great - bones of Abelard, a tooth of Voltaire, whiskers from Henri IV's mustache - and Fragonard depicts him replacing in its tomb, after an evidently minute examination, the skull of the semi-legendary eleventh- century Spanish hero El Cid. In a subtly edited form, this referred to events during the French siege of the Spanish city of Burgos in 1808, when a regiment of dragoons, hoping to find gold and jewels, destroyed El Cid's monument in San Pedro de Cardena near the city. The French governor of Castille, appalled at this sacrilege, salvaged what he could of the remains and built a new monument in Burgos, but not before he had presented Denon with a parcel of the great man's bones. Far from replacing them where they belonged, Denon kept them for the rest of his life. More on Vivant Denon

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard (French, Grasse 1780–1850 Paris)

Dramatic Scene with Monks in a Crypt

Oil on canvas

28 5/8 x 35 7/8 in. (72.7 x 91.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In this scene evocative of the Middle Ages, monks process into a Gothic crypt bearing a corpse in an open casket. At the moment they enter the stagelike space, their brethren, having opened a tomb to receive the body, discover that it is already occupied, sparking a dramatic stir. The precise literary source for this composition, believed to date to the 1820s, continues to elude scholars, but the ghoulish scenario was a staple for Fragonard and his contemporaries. The painter is today overshadowed by his father, Jean Honoré Fragonard, but he was one of the most versatile and sought-after artists of his generation. More on this painting

Fragonard became a pupil of J.-L. David at the Academy’s école des Eléves Protégés when he was only twelve and living with his parents and his aunt, the painter Marguerite Gérard, in the Louvre. He was first listed in the livret of the Paris Salon as an exhibitor in 1793, at the age of thirteen. Fragonard’s works of the 1790s were mainly drawings of revolutionary republican subjects in a neoclassical style, many of which were engraved. These show a clear renunciation of his father’s rococo style, then considered frivolous and a symbol of the ancient régime, in favor of the pared-down neoclassicism of his master. 

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard (1780-1850)

François 1st armed knight by Bayard, circa 1819

Oil on canvas

54 x 64.7 cm

Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. 

Following the policy of his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. He formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time.

The final stage of that war, which history refers to simply as "Francis' First Italian War" (1515–1516), when Francis routed the combined forces of the Papal States and the Old Swiss Confederacy at Marignano on 13–15 September 1515. This victory at Marignano (See below) allowed Francis to capture the Italian city-state of Milan. Later, in November 1521, during the Four Years' War (1521–1526) and facing the advancing Imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire and open revolt within Milan, Francis was forced to abandon Milan, thus, cancelling the triumph at Marignano. More on Francis I

This scene relates the famous episode where the King, on the eve of the victory of Marignan in 1515, is armed as a knight by his famous captain. Unlike other representations where we see the king kneeling in front of his valiant captain, Fragonard represents Bayard seated in an armchair, sword between his legs. He emphasizes, by lighting and white garment, on the king who emerges from the shadows and dominates the audience, as he swears on the Gospel to serve God, honor and ladies. Under the royal tent of the military camp are gathered to the right of the church people, and to the left, soldiers and ladies. More on this painting

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard  (1780–1850)

Battle of Marignan, September 14, 1515, c. 1836

Oil on canvas

Museum of the History of France

The Battle of Marignano was the last major engagement of the War of the League of Cambrai and took place on 13–14 September 1515, near the town now called Melegnano, 16 km southeast of Milan. It pitted the French army, composed of the best heavy cavalry and artillery in Europe, led by Francis I, newly crowned King of France, against the Old Swiss Confederacy, whose mercenaries until that point were regarded as the best medieval infantry force in Europe. With the French were German landsknechts, bitter rivals of the Swiss for fame and renown in war, and their late arriving Venetian allies. More on The Battle of Marignano 

Later in his career, however, Fragonard assimilated many of the painterly techniques exemplified in his father’s work. By the first decade of the nineteenth century Fragonard was receiving important Napoleonic commissions such as designs for the Colonne de la campagne de Pologne. Although Fragonard did not send works to the Salon between 1812 and 1819 he was well recognized at the time and in 1815 received the decoration of chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard (French, Grasse 1780–1850 Paris)

RODRIGO DE BIVAR "EL CID" AND HIS FATHER, DON DIEGO, circa 1827

Oil on canvas

18 1/4 by 15 inches (46.5 by 38 cm.)

Matthiesen Fine Art

Corneille’s Le Cid is a tale of the eleventh-century crusade to liberate Spain from Moorish domination. King Alfonso of Castille carried out his Christian reconquest with the aid of Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar — El Cid (meaning lord or master in arabic). 

Just prior to the scene depicted here Rodrigo’s father don Diego has been gravely insulted. Don Diego asks his son to avenge him. This moment is represented by the figure of don Diego with his hand over his son’s heart, and Rodrigo in a flamboyantly defiant stance. This is a crucial moment for the development of the play’s plot because the Cid is about to learn that the man he must kill to avenge his father is Don Gomez, the father of his betrothed. His choice between love and honor shapes the play... More on this painting

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard (French, Grasse 1780–1850 Paris)

DON JUAN AND THE STATUE OF THE COMMANDER

Oil On Canvas

41 x 33 cm

Private collection

Based on the  classic Spanish tale of Don Juan, well-known in France through the versions of Molière and Corneille, was given a sensational new form in the late eighteenth century in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

Here the protagonist is a robust bearded man who has been described as a “musketeer Don Juan.” The scene is the dramatic climax of the story when the unrepentant libertine is confronted by the statue of the Commander come to life. Uttering the famous line common to all versions of the tale – “give me your hand” – the statue holds out a hand before condemning Don Juan to Hell. The torch held by Don Juan illuminates not only the towering stone figure of the Commander, but also two spectral figures hovering in the background. More on this painting

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard

Don Juan and the statue of the Commander, circa 1830-1835

Graphite, pen and brown ink, watercolor, heightened with gum arabic

Dimensions: Sheet: 13 7/8 × 10 1/2 in. (35.3 × 26.6 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Here, again, Fragonard depicts the final dramatic scene from Mozart’s opera, "Don Giovanni" where the luck of the libertine Don Juan has finally run out. After killing in a duel the father of a young woman he had been seducing, he encounters his statue at a tomb. The statue comes to life and pulls Don Juan down into the fiery pit of hell.

Other versions of the subject include a large watercolor in the Detroit Institute of Arts and an oil painting in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg. More on this painting

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard

Le manuscrit brûlé

Oil on canvas

h: 55 w: 45,50 cm

Private collection

 It seems relevant to bring this work closer to the piece Don Juan by Molière, which was for our artist an important source of inspiration. Indeed, this canvas is full of symbols attached to marriage and offers an allegorical reading referring to the death of a love. Thus, the dog, symbol of loyalty, is alert in the foreground, as if frightened by the scene he is witnessing. The man is throwing a leaf into the flames, while the woman tries to stop him. This scene seems to us to be the representation of divorce, symbolized here by the marriage contract thrown into the fire. On the table, the extinguished and overturned candle reminds us of the Dutch vanities of the 17th century, a school dear to Fragonard, where it constitutes the allegory of the flight of time, and the symbol of the futility of this passing life.

In our opinion, in the light of these elements, this work seems to be able to be compared to Act I, scene III, featuring Don Juan and his wife Elvira, the latter announcing to him the loss of his feelings towards him. A scene of palpable dramatic tension, also crystallized in our work, it pits the imperturbable libertine against an abandoned and helpless woman, a true tragic heroine here. More on this painting

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard

FAUSTIAN FANTASY: THE FATAL HOUR (II)

Oil on canvas

22 x 18 inches (56 x 45.7 cm.)

Matthiesen Fine Art

The subject of this work is something of an enigma; while it clearly recalls the imagery of Goethe’s Faust, which had inspired Fragonard on other occasions, there is no scene in the play to which it absolutely conforms. It may have been inspired by a contemporary theatrical variation on Faust or it may have been a subject of the artist’s own invention. 

The devil appears to a young lord at table with a courtesan, and points his finger, on the dial, his last hour which is about to strike. The most notable difference between this version and the more highly finished version is in the treatment of the figure of the devil; in the more highly finished version he is clothed in sixteenth-century garb with only pointed ears to reveal his true character, while in this one he is a horned beast who appears in a cloud of smoke and flames (See below). This painting shows both Fragonard’s talents as a draftsman and as a colorist with a flair for theatrical lighting effects that recall the work of his father. More on this painting

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard

The Fatal Hour: Fantastic Subject

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

The rapidly changing political regimes of the early nineteenth century caused Fragonard’s work on several occasions to be destroyed or left incomplete. Under Napoleon he designed a sculptured frontal for the Chamber of Deputies (Palais Bourbon) which was replaced during the July Monarchy. Designs for the same building commissioned under the Restoration were aborted after the July Revolution of 1830. During the restoration, when he really came of age, Fragonard saw continued success as he changed his subject matter to suit current tastes.

Fragonard, Alexandre-Évariste (Grasse, 1780 - Paris, 1850)

Scene of the Saint-Barthélemy Massacre (August 24, 1572), c. 1836

Scene in the bedroom of Marguerite de Valois during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

Oil on canvas

Height: 1.79 m; Width: 1.33 m

Louvre Museum

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Queen Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX. More on the Saint-Barthélemy Massacre

Margaret of Valois was a French princess of the Valois dynasty who became queen consort of Navarre and later also of France. By her marriage to Henry III of Navarre she was queen of Navarre and then France at her husband's 1589 accession to the latter throne.

Her union with the king of Navarre, which had been intended to contribute to the reconciliation of Roman Catholics and Protestant Huguenots in France, was tarnished six days after the marriage ceremony by the St Bartholomew's Day massacre and the resumption of the French Wars of Religion. In the conflict between Henry III and the Malcontents, she took the side of Francis, Duke of Anjou, her younger brother, and this caused the king to have a deep aversion towards her.

Mistreated by a brother quick to take offence and rejected by a fickle and opportunistic husband, she chose the path of opposition in 1585. She took the side of the Catholic League and was forced to live in Auvergne in an exile which lasted twenty years. In 1599, she consented to a "royal divorce" – i.e. the annulment of the marriage – but only after the payment of a generous compensation. More on Margaret of Valois

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard  (1780–1850)

Diane de Poitiers in the studio of Jean Goujon, c. Circa 1830

Oil on canvas

Height: 0.643 m; Width: 0.81 m

Louvre Museum

The Fountain of Diana, also known as Diana of Anet and Diana with a Stag is a marble Mannerist sculpture of the goddess Diana, representing Diane de Poitiers. It was created c. 1549 to be the central ornament of a grand fountain in a courtyard of Diane de Poitier's Château d'Anet, but today is in the Louvre Long believed to be the work of Jean Goujon, the identity of the sculptor is now considered uncertain. More on The Fountain of Diana

Jean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect. He became "sculptor to the king" (Henry II of France) in 1547 and in the next years was occupied at the Château of Anet.

Goujon was a Protestant; he escaped the French Wars of Religion by exiling himself in Italy in 1562. He probably died in Bologna, where he is last documented in 1563 as a member of a group of Huguenot refugees. More on Jean Goujon

Diane de Poitiers was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and family's status. She was a major patron of French Renaissance architecture. More on Diane de Poitiers

Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis III, Duke of Brittany, in 1536.

As a child, Henry and his elder brother spent over four years in captivity in Spain as hostages in exchange for their father. Henry pursued his father's policies in matters of art, war, and religion. He persevered in the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and tried to suppress the Protestant Reformation, even as the Huguenot numbers were increasing drastically in France during his reign.

Henry became romantically involved with thirty-five-year-old widow, Diane de Poitiers. Henry and Diane had always been very close: the young lady had fondly embraced Henry on the day he, as a 7-year-old child, set off to captivity in Spain, and the bond had been renewed after his return to France. More on Henry II

In 1819, already an accomplished artist, he ventured into the newly popular territory of historical genre painting. This change was well noted in contemporary criticism. Themes from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, recently reintroduced into fashion by the troubadour painters dominated Fragonard’s painting for the rest of his life. His style, however, with its rich palette, painterly flourish, dramatic gesture and light effects, was very different from that of the troubadour painters, and closer to the next generation of Romantic artists associated with Delacroix — Colin and Bonington.

After Anthony van Dyck, Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard

Samson and Delilah

Oil on canvas

100 x 152 cm

Private collection

Samson  is one of the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical account, Samson was given supernatural strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats. Samson had two vulnerabilities—his attraction to untrustworthy women and his hair, without which he was powerless. These vulnerabilities ultimately proved fatal for him.

 

Samson eventually fell in love with a woman named Delilah. The Philistines bribed Delilah with 1,100 silver pieces from each of the Philistine leaders, to get her to figure out the secret of Samson's strength and tell them. 

 

After asking him several times what the secret to his strength is: "Finally he disclosed to her all his heart and said to her: 'A razor has never come upon my head, because I am a Naz′i·rite of God from my mother’s belly. If I did get shaved, my power also would certainly depart from me, and I should indeed grow weak and become like all other men.'" 

 

She relayed this to the Philistine axis lords, got Samson to fall asleep, and while he was sleeping, had his head shaved. The Philistines then took him captive, put out both his eyes, and made him their slave. 

 

One day as they are having a great party to worship their false god Dagon, the Philistines bring Samson out so they can make fun of him. By that time, Samson's hair has grown out again. Samson has a young boy lead him to the pillars that hold the building up, prays to Jehovah for strength, takes hold of the pillars, and cries out: "Let my soul die with the Philistines."

 

There are 3,000 Philistines on the roof of the building alone, and many more inside (the axis lords are all there as well), and when Samson pushes against the pillars, the building falls down and kills all of them, including Samson. More on Samson

During the Restoration and July Monarchy Fragonard received important commissions for painted decorations for the Louvre (François I armé chevalier par Bayard, François I reçoit les tableaux rapportés d’Italie par le Primatice; Les Sciences et les Beaux-Arts rendent hommage à leurs dieux protecteurs), Versailles (Bataille de Marignan), and numerous churches including Strasbourg Cathedral, the Church of Ste. Geneviéve, and Saint-Etienne-du-Mont. He continued to exhibit easel paintings through the 1842 Salon. 

Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard
Jeanne d'Arc sur le bûcher/ Joan of Arc at the stake, c. 1822

Oil on canvas

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen.

During this period Fragonard also did much work for the Sévres Manufactory, including both the design of porcelain forms and the decoration. More on Alexandre Fragonard

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.