About the Artist

Fragonard began his training with Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin, later studying under Francois Boucher, whose work impressed him very deeply. In 1752 he won the Prix de Rome and joined the class taught by Carle van Loos. He received a scholarship to study at the Acedemie de France in Rome from 1756 to 1761, and after his return he became a member of the Paris academy. He traveled to Italy once again in 1773, then immediately there after to Vienna and Germany. Along with Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher, Fragonard is among the greatest genre painters at the end of the Age of absolutism in France. As a rococo painter, he did not embrace the revolutionary neoclassical aesthetic. Works by the artist include The Crowning of the Lover, 1772, Festival in the St. Cloud, 1775 and The Fountain of Love, 1780.