Fragonard’s so-called fantasy portraits are electric performances: brushed with virtuosity, panache, and speed, he reworked the surface while the paint remained wet, including by incising lines into the large white ruff. The theatrical costume recalls Queen Maria de’ Medici’s court dress from over a century earlier, as depicted in a series of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens that Fragonard saw in the French royal collections. A recently discovered drawing makes it possible to identify this woman as the aristocratic salon hostess Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson. Fragonard’s painterly performance arguably outshines her, however, making this a kind of artist’s self-portrait.
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The striped robe with a high standing collar that Fragonard depicted here would have been recognized in the second half of the eighteenth century as a theatrical costume and described at the time as à l’espagnole, or in the Spanish style. It was old-fashioned, and would have brought to mind the court dress in which Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) famously depicted Marie de Médicis (1573–1642), queen of Henri IV of France, in a series of paintings then as now in the French royal collection (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Rubens’s queen is large, imposing, and plain. And there is an inferential connection to the present picture, suggesting that we should regard as humorous the contrast between the ample proportions of the lady in the ermine-lined cloak and the small size of her lapdog. The curl of his silky white tail echoes her gray ringlets. Her brooch and pearls are much too large to have been real.
This painting, lost from sight until 1907, evidently was not mentioned in Fragonard’s own time. When it was rediscovered, the sitter was identified as a member of his family, but he had neither a sister nor an aunt, and his daughter Rosalie was not born until 1770. He would later record the appearance of his wife, Marie Anne Gérard (1745–1823), whom he married in 1769, and by general agreement it is not she. It dates to about that same year or a little later and belongs to a group of a dozen or more works of nearly identical dimensions showing figures in fancy dress with a stone ledge or pedestal in the foreground. They are now referred to as figures de fantaisie, or fantasy figures, and are much admired, particularly because they were painted as a sort of tour de force, rapidly, with broad strokes of the brush and with exceptional virtuosity and panache. While Fragonard did not give attention to details of an individual’s likeness, some if not all of those represented seem to have been his patrons and friends. The model for the present painting was almost certainly Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson (1716–1806).
Katharine Baetjer 2016
Marie Anne Eléonore de Grave (d. 1807); her daughter, Augustine de Grave, marquise de Cambis; Amable Elisabeth Françoise Henriette de Cambis and her husband, Joseph Gabriel Paulin de Cambis-Alais, vicomte de Cambis-Alais (until his d. 1866); Charles-Pierre-Marie de Cambis-Alais, comte de Cambis-Alais (d. 1866); Marguerite de Cambis-Alais and her husband, Charles Siffrien des Isnards, marquis des Isnards (from 1866; sold to Féral); [Monsieur Féral, Paris; sold to Burat]; Mme Louis Burat, Paris (by 1907–d. 1937; her nephew, Albert Besnier; her estate sale, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, June 17, 1937, no. 3, for Fr 1,450,000 to Seligmann, Rey & Co. for The Met)
Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "Chardin et Fragonard," June–July 1907, no. 91 (as "Portrait de la soeur de Fragonard," lent by Mme Burat).
Paris. Musée des Arts Décoratifs. "Exposition d'oeuvres de J.–H. Fragonard," June 7–July 10, 1921, no. 31 (as "Portrait de femme tenant un chien," lent by Mme Burat).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no. 264 (as "Portrait of Rosalie Fragonard, the Artist's Sister," lent by J. Besnier) [commemorative catalogue, 1933, no. 164].
Paris. location unknown. "Le siècle de Louis XV vu par les artistes," 1934, no. 150 (as "Femme tenant un chien," lent by Monsieur Besnier).
Allentown, Pa. Allentown Art Museum. October 22–26, 1948, no catalogue?
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Old Masters from the Metropolitan," December 1, 1948–January 23, 1949, no catalogue.
Madison. Memorial Union Gallery, University of Wisconsin. "Old Masters from the Metropolitan," February 15–March 30, 1949, unnumbered cat.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. "Old Masters from the Metropolitan," April 24–June 30, 1949, no catalogue.
Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "European Masters of the XVII and XVIII Centuries," January 13–February 5, 1950, no. 19.
Tokyo National Museum. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 85.
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 85.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 52.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 52.
New York. Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University. "Circa 1776," November 1–24, 1976, unnumbered cat. (p. 6).
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Fragonard," September 24, 1987–January 4, 1988, no. 139.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fragonard," February 2–May 8, 1988, no. 139.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne," June 23–November 12, 2006, no. 38.
Barcelona. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. "Grandes maestros de la pintura europea de The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York: De El Greco a Cézanne," December 1, 2006–March 4, 2007, no. 30.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Rubens and His Legacy: From Van Dyck to Cézanne," January 24–April 10, 2015, no. 108.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures," October 8–December 3, 2017, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 14).
Robert de La Sizeranne. "Le double mirroir du XVIIIe siècle." Revue des deux mondes, 5th ser., 40 (July 1907), p. 185, calls it the lady with the pearls and the little dog, the artist's sister.
Maurice Tourneux. "L'exposition Chardin–Fragonard." Gazette des beaux-arts 38 (1907), p. 100.
Armand Dayot and Léandre Vaillat. L'oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, [1908], p. xi, ill. no. 77, call it a portrait of Fragonard's sister, Rosalie, from the collection of M. Féral who acquired it from the "familles De Cambise ou Des Isnards".
Georges Grappe. H. Fragonard: Peintre de l'amour au XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1913, vol. 1, ill. opp. p. 54, as the artist's sister.
André Dezarrois. "Chroniques: L'art français à Londres." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 61 (January–May 1932), p. 92.
Charles Sterling inCommemorative Catalogue of French Art, 1200–1900: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1933, p. 45, no. 164, as a presumed portrait of Rosalie Fragonard dating to 1765–67, belonging to J. Besnier.
Mme André Dezarrois. "La curiosité." Revue de l'art, 3rd per., 71 (September 1937), pp. 191–92, ill. p. 193.
"New Metropolitan Pictures." Art News 36 (Janauary 15, 1938), p. 13, ill.
Art in America 26 (April 1938), p. 92, ill.
Hermann W. Williams Jr. "Portrait of a Lady with a Dog by Fragonard." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 33 (January 1938), pp. 14–16, ill. on cover, notes its stylistic similarity to four sketch-like Fragonards in the Louvre, dating it to 1767–70; states that due to the sitter's anachronistic "Spanish" dress, she may be an actress or singer.
"Metropolitan Buys a Fragonard, Who Listened When Fragonard Spoke." Art Digest (February 1, 1938), p. 8, ill.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 37.
Charles Sterling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. Vol. 1, XV–XVIII Centuries. Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 154–55, ill., remarks that the subject has been mistakenly identified as the artist's aunt, and also as his sister (he never had one); suggests an actress; notes that the costume recalls the court dress of Marie de' Medici.
Louis Réau. Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956, pp. 182, 252, [270], as a portrait painted about 1770.
Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of Fragonard, Complete Edition. London, 1960, pp. 14, 257, 259, no. 256, ill., catalogues it with pictures dating between 1765 and 1772.
Charles Sterling. Portrait of a Man (The Warrior): Jean Honoré Fragonard. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 1964, unpaginated, believes that the "fantasy portraits" represent specific individuals; suggests that the female portraits of fantasy comprised a separate series; observes that the costume was inspired by Van Loo and Rubens.
"Rococo Master in Williamstown." Art News 63 (September 1964), p. 44.
Calvin Tomkins. Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 224 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].
Gabriele Mandel inL'opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972, p. 98, no. 273, ill.
Simone Alaida Zurawski. Rubenism. Exh. cat., Brown University. Providence, 1975, pp. 154–55, fig. 18, as "Fragonard's most playful adaptation after Rubens".
Harsányi Zoltán. Fragonard. Budapest, 1981, p. 14, pl. 15.
Mary D. Sheriff. "Invention, Resemblance, and Fragonard's 'Portaits de Fantaisie'." Art Bulletin 69 (March 1987), pp. 77–87, cited on p. 84, discusses Fragonard's fantasy portraits as a "deliberate play with the conventions of portraiture" and "a demonstration of wit".
Pierre Cabanne. Fragonard. Paris, 1987, p. 65.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin. Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre, catalogue complet des peintures. Fribourg, Switzerland, 1987, pp. 116–17, 293–94, no. 182, ill. (color and black and white).
Mary D. Sheriff. "On Fragonard's Enthusiasm." Eighteenth Century 28 (Winter 1987), p. 44 n. 1.
Pierre Rosenberg. Fragonard. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 288–89, no. 139, ill. (color) [French ed., 1987, as "Portrait d'une femme tenant un chien"], as meant to be humorous.
Dore Ashton. Fragonard in the Universe of Painting. Washington, 1988, pp. 86, 133, ill. (color), observes that although it is sometimes included among the fantasy portraits, it "has the feel of a real portrait".
John McEwen. "Fragonard: Rococo or Romantic?" Art in America 76 (February 1988), p. 90, ill. (color).
Pierre Rosenberg. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989, p. 93, no. 204, ill.
Mary D. Sheriff. Fragonard: Art and Eroticism. Chicago, 1990, p. 176.
Sophie McConnell. Metropolitan Jewelry. New York, 1991, pp. 44–45, ill. (color).
Aileen Ribeiro. The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820. New Haven, 1995, p. 167, pl. 169, dates it about 1772–73.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 381, ill.
Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts. Frameworks: Form, Function & Ornament in European Portrait Frames. London, 1996, p. 441 n. 16.
Emilie E. S. Gordenker. Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-century Portraiture. Turnhout, Belgium, 2001, p. 126 n. 118.
Flavio Caroli and Alessandra Barbuto inIl gran teatro del mondo: l'anima e il volto del Settecento. Exh. cat., Palazzo Reale. Milan, 2003, p. 440.
Katharine Baetjer inThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2006, pp. 204–8, no. 38, ill. (color, overall and detail) [Catalan ed., Barcelona, 2006, pp. 112–15, no. 30, ill. (color, overall and detail)].
Melissa Percival. Fragonard and the Fantasy Figure: Painting the Imagination. Farnham, England, 2012, pp. 19, 26, 28, 32, 34, 36, 44 n. 19, pp. 153, 169–70, 172, 189, 218, 224, colorpl. 9.
Carole Blumenfeld. "Une nouvelle figure de fantaisie de Fragonard." L'Objet d'art no. 491 (June 2013), pp. 52, 54, 57, ill. (color), as a portrait of Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson.
Carole Blumenfeld. Une facétie de Fragonard: Les révélations d'un dessin retrouvé. Montreuil, 2013, pp. 18, 20, 22, 34, 55, 59–60, 69, 71 nn. 35, 36, ill. pp. 21 (color), 56, publishes a Fragonard drawing that appeared at auction in 2012, having belonged to the artist's family; on the basis of the inscription "Courson" under the second of eighteen figure studies, identifies our sitter as Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson and sheds light on a connection to the "De Cambise ou Des Isnards" families.
Michel Delon, ed. The Libertine: The Art of Love in Eighteenth-Century France. New York, 2013, ill. p. 413 (color).
David Howarth inRubens and His Legacy. Exh. cat., BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels. London, 2014, pp. 230–31, 238, 240, 326 nn. 4–5, no. 108, ill. p. 241 (color).
Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey. "Fragonard's 'Fantasy Figures': Prelude to a New Understanding." Burlington Magazine 157 (April 2015), pp. 241–47, figs. 8, 12 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 423, no. 297, ill. pp. 312, 423 (color).
Yuriko Jackall et al. Fragonard: The Fantasy Figures. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2017, pp. 3, 6, 10–12, 15, 44, 56, 61–64, 66, 68, 71, 73 n. 15, pp. 84, 93–94, 114, 132, 135, 137, 140–42, ill. p. x (color detail), colorpl. 14, figs. 3 (p. 44; paintings in order of corresponding figures on "Sketches of Portraits"), 2 (p. 136; plot showing thread count), 6–7 (p. 138; weave-density maps), 13 (p. 142; false-color hyperspectral infrared reflectogram).
Colin B. Bailey. "Fragonard's Merry Company." New York Review of Books (January 21, 2018), unpaginated, ill. (color) [http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/01/21/fragonards-merry-company/].
Ewa Lajer-Burcharth. The Painter's Touch: Boucher, Chardin, Fragonard. Princeton, 2018, pp. 218–19, 222, fig. 3.55 (color), uses the sitter's name as the title; relates this painting to the culture of performance, and draws attention to the idiosyncratic handling.
Neil Jeffares. Minutiae at the Met. March 29, 2019, unpaginated [https://neiljeffares.wordpress.com/2019/03/29/minutiae-at-the-met/], asserts that as Emilie Coignet de Courson was sixteen in 1733, she was probably born in 1716 and would have been fifty-three in 1769.
Katharine Baetjer. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. New York, 2019, pp. 256–61, no. 80, ill. (color), figs. 80.2 (label on back), 80.4 (x-radiograph).
Holland Cotter. "The Met Casts New Light on Hit Works and History." New York Times (December 25, 2020), p. C1 [online ed., "The Met Casts New Light on its Greatest Hits and History," December 24, 2020, ill. (color, installation view); https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/arts/design/metropolitan-museum-european-paintings-skylights.html].
Satish Padiyar. Fragonard: Painting Out of Time. London, 2020, pp. 58, 66, fig. 29 (color), calls it a "discordant note" within the "fantasy portraits" due to the woman's "mildly sadistic glance".
Colin B. Bailey. "Review of Baetjer 2019." Burlington Magazine 163 (May 2021), p. 472.
Yuriko Jackall. "‘The Swing’ by Jean Honoré Fragonard: New Hypotheses." Burlington Magazine 166 (May 2024), p. 454, fig. 18 (color detail).
The frame is from Paris and dates to about 1730 (see figs. 2–5 above). This highly elegant Louis XV frame is made of oak with mitred corners secured with tapered keys. The surface is water gilded with both matte and burnished passages on an ochre and dark red bole. The sight-edge carving includes a shield and acanthus within a narrow hollow. Elaborate carved corners with rocaille shells and acanthus volutes and floral cornucopia are connected by ribbon-clasped swept reeds at the top edge to carved centers ornamented with splayed feathers and flowers. Deep hollow sides sweep out to an acanthus carved back edge. While the outside retains its original gilding the inside was re-leafed in the eighteenth century on its original, skillfully recut gesso ground.
Timothy Newbery with Cynthia Moyer 2017; further information on this frame can be found in the Department of European Paintings files
Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
ca. 1761
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