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Two Cypresses in an Italian Garden
Jean Honoré Fragonard French
Not on view
The Italian gardens that the young Fragonard studied in chalk left an indelible impression on him. Years later the artist made this view, centered on a monumental pair of cypresses, possibly from memory. Few of his later landscapes represent identifiable locations; instead they are dreamlike evocations of leisure in lush settings. Here, Fragonard experimented by adding details in sanguine brûlée, a brownish-red shade of chalk, which adds a naturalistic note of dryness and decay to the otherwise verdant foliage.
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