The Love Letter

The Love Letter
The Love Letter

Artist:Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
Date:early 1770s
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:32 3/4 x 26 3/8 in. (83.2 x 67 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

In the work of Fragonard, finish is a relative term. Here, over a brown tone, Fragonard shapes the composition in darker shades of brown, drawing and modeling with the tip of the brush and with strokes of varying thickness. Color and white are confined to passages under strong light toward the center of the canvas: the young woman's powdered face, her dress and cap, writing surface and stool, flowers and dog. A famous canvas from the early 1770s, the work should be read not as a portrait but as a genre scene.

Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org

Comments