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Diogenes
Jean Honoré Fragonard French
Not on view
Although it resembles Head of an Italian Peasant (1774, hanging nearby), this drawing was based not on a living model but on a painting by the Spanish Baroque painter Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652). In late August 1774, Fragonard, his patron Bergeret, and the rest of their traveling party passed through Dresden, where they spent several days admiring the painting collection of the Elector of Saxony, including Ribera’s canvas. Diogenes, an ancient Greek philosopher who sought to escape the corruption of civilization, is often portrayed bearing the lantern he used in broad daylight to search the marketplace for an honest man.
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