Fragonard: Painting out of Time

About this book

At the time of his death in 1806 the rococo artist Jean-Honor Fragonard had not painted for two decades. Following a period of huge public success the painters reputation fell. Fragonard: Painting Out of Time takes this prolonged artistic silence as a point of departure to investigate the maverick personality of Fragonard within the lively society of eighteenth-century France. Personally secretive Fragonard nevertheless created revealing images that undermined a normal sense of space and time. Satish Padiyar investigates the life and work of the last of the libertine painters of the ancien regime a contemporary of Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and presents dramatic new perspectives on works such as The Progress of Love painted for Madame du Barry the infamous The Bolt and the ever-popular The Swing.