, his birthplace '', 1775–1780,
Timken Museum of Art, San Diego Jean-Honoré Fragonard was born in
Grasse,
Alpes-Maritimes,
France the only child of François Fragonard, a glover, and Françoise Petit. In 1738 the family relocated to Paris. The young Fragonard showed an inclination for art, which was recognized by
François Boucher, who recommended him to the
atelier of
Chardin. In 1760, they toured Italy together, executing numerous sketches of local scenery. It was in these romantic gardens, with their fountains, grottoes, temples and terraces, that Fragonard conceived the dreams which he was subsequently to render in his art. He also learned to admire the masters of the Dutch and Flemish schools (
Rubens,
Hals,
Rembrandt,
Ruisdael), imitating their loose and vigorous brushstrokes. Added to this influence was the deep impression made upon his mind by the florid sumptuousness of
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, whose works he had an opportunity to study in Venice before he returned to Paris in 1761. In 1765 his
Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe secured his admission to the Academy. It was made the subject of a pompous (though not wholly serious) eulogy by
Denis Diderot, and was bought by the king, who had it reproduced at the
Gobelins factory. Until this time Fragonard had hesitated between religious, classic and other subjects, but he did not aspire to become a
history painter and he had difficulty completing official commissions. As a consequence, he painted mostly for private patrons or for himself. The demand of the wealthy art patrons of
Louis XV's pleasure-loving and licentious court turned him definitely towards those scenes of love and voluptuousness, which are only made acceptable by the tender beauty of his color and the virtuosity of his facile brushwork; such works include the ''
Blind Man's Bluff (Le collin maillard
), Serment d'amour
(Love Vow), Le Verrou
(The Bolt), La Culbute
(The Tumble), La Chemise enlevée
(The Raised Chemise), and L'escarpolette'' (The Swing,
Wallace Collection), and his decorations for the apartments of
Mme du Barry and the dancer
Madeleine Guimard. A lukewarm response to these series of ambitious works induced Fragonard to abandon the Rococo style and to experiment with
Neoclassicism. He married
Marie-Anne Gérard (1745–1823), herself a painter of miniatures, on 17 June 1769 and had a daughter,
Rosalie Fragonard (1769–1788), who became one of his favourite models. In October 1773, he again went to Italy with Pierre-Jacques Onézyme Bergeret de Grancourt and his son, Pierre-Jacques Bergeret de Grancourt. In September 1774, he returned through
Vienna,
Prague,
Dresden,
Frankfurt and
Strasbourg. Back in Paris
Marguerite Gérard, his wife's 14-year-old sister, became his student and assistant in 1778. In 1780, he had a son,
Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (1780–1850), who eventually became a talented painter and sculptor. The
French Revolution deprived Fragonard of his private patrons: they were either
guillotined or exiled. The neglected painter deemed it prudent to leave Paris in 1790 and found shelter in the house of his cousin
Alexandre Maubert at Grasse, which he decorated with the series of decorative panels known as the ''Les progrès de l'amour dans le cœur d'une jeune fille'', originally painted for
Château du Barry. '' (French: ), 1767,
Wallace Collection, London == Legacy ==