Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) created some of the most exuberant and sensual works of 18th-century French art. Born in Grasse to a glove merchant, he trained briefly under Chardin before entering François Boucher's studio. A precocious talent, he won the Prix de Rome at just twenty. His painting Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe (1765) secured his admission to the Academy, but he largely abandoned history painting for the lighter subjects that suited his temperament.

His masterpiece The Swing (1767) at the Wallace Collection in London epitomizes Rococo playfulness. A young woman swings high as her shoe flies toward a man hidden in the bushes below, while an older man pushes from behind. The Baron de Saint-Julien commissioned the painting to show himself with his mistress. Fragonard produced over 550 paintings, executing them with remarkable speed. During the Revolution, his friend Jacques-Louis David helped him become a museum curator, but the Neoclassical aesthetic had displaced his lighter style by then. He died nearly forgotten in 1806. Major works hang at the Louvre, Metropolitan Museum, and National Gallery of Art.