Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Known for paintings of lovers in amorous pursuit, elegant ladies in billowing dresses, and bucolic scenes, all beloved by 18th-century French aristocrats, painter and draughtsman Jean-Honoré Fragonard is one the most significant artists of Louis XIV- and XV-era France. His works are housed in the collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Louvre. The Swing (1767), his best-known painting, is considered a masterpiece of the Rococo style for depicting the decadence and frivolity of the French aristocracy. As a teenager, Fragonard studied under Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and François Boucher. Awarded the Prix de Rome in 1752, he spent the years 1756–61 in residence at the French Academy in Rome and studied antiquities and Renaissance paintings. When he returned to France, Frangonard rejected a career as a history painter for the French crown, instead producing easel paintings for private clients such as Madame du Barry, the official mistress of Louis XV.