Fragonard

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Masterpieces in Colour

Edited by--T. Leman Hare

FRAGONARD

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IN THE SAME SERIES

ARTIST. AUTHOR. VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. LUINI. JAMES MASON. FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. LEONARDO DA VINCI. M. W. BROCKWELL.

In Preparation

WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. RUBENS. S. L. BENSUSAN. BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. J. F. MILLET. PERCY M. TURNER. CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. HOLBEIN. S. L. BENSUSAN. BOUCHER. C. HALDANE MACFALL. VIGÉE LE BRUN. C. HALDANE MACFALL. WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. MURILLO. S. L. BENSUSAN. AND OTHERS.

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[Illustration: PLATE I.--CHIFFRE D'AMOUR. Frontispiece

(In the Wallace Collection)

Fragonard, like his master Boucher, soon found that the pompous, historical, and religious pictures which the critics demanded of him, pleased no one but the critics. It was a fortunate day for him when he turned his back upon them, and employed his charming gifts upon the statement of the life of his day. And in few paintings that created his fame has he surpassed the fine handling of this scene, in which the girl cuts her lover's initials on the trunk of a tree--the dainty figure silhouetted against the dreamlike background of sky and tree that he loved so well. There is over all the glamour of the poetic statement supremely done.]

Fragonard

by

HALDANE MACFALL

Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour

[Illustration]

London: T. C. & E. C. Jack New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.

TO

MY FRIEND

WALTER EMANUEL

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate I. Chiffre d'Amour Frontispiece In the Wallace Collection Page II. The Music Lesson 14 In the Louvre

III. L'Etude 24 In the Louvre

IV. The Schoolmistress 34 In the Wallace Collection

V. Figure de Fantasie 40 In the Louvre

VI. Le Voeu à l'Amour 50 In the Louvre (new acquisition)

VII. The Fair-haired Boy 60 In the Wallace Collection

VIII. Le Billet Doux 70 In the Collection of M. Wildenstein, Paris

[Illustration]

I

THE BEGINNINGS

High up, amongst the Sea-Alps that stretch along the southern edge of France, where romantic Provence bathes her sunburnt feet in the blue waters of the Mediterranean, high on the mountain's side hangs the steep little town of Grasse, embowered midst grey-green olive-trees. In as sombre a narrow street as there is in all her dark alleys, on the fifth day of April in the much bewigged and powdered year of 1732, there was born to a glovemaker of the town, worthy mercer Fragonard, a boy-child, whom the priest in the gloomy church christened Jean Honoré Fragonard.