Fragonard Amoureux : Galant Et Libertin

Exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 16 September 2015 - 24 January 2016

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a prominent artist on the Parisian scene in the second half of the 18th century who happily tackled all genres, but it was soon considered that the theme of love held a particular importance in his work. His output has often been reduced to the sensual energy of his licentious works of 1765-1775. But the amorous inspiration that runs through the protean and generous work of the "divine Frago" appears infinitely richer and more subtle. At a time when the Enlightenment was giving a new place to the senses and subjectivity, and when the young, burgeoning genre of novels was placing love at the heart of its fictions, Fragonard's paintings and pencils depict the thousand variations of feeling in unison with his era.

This exhibition catalogue allows us to follow his career from the last fires of gallant love and the triumph of libertinism to the rise of a sincere and sensitive love, already "romantic".