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Sketch of a Family of Farm Workers

Jean Honoré Fragonard French

1773-78

Not on view

On this sketchbook page, Fragonard made a schematic record of a family at the gate of a farmyard, with chickens underfoot. Through the gate we can discern a road and a cluster of trees. The rural setting is similar to that in The Service Yard of a Château with Poultry (ca. 1770–73, hanging nearby), where turkeys rule the roost; this scene might have been drawn on a visit to a similar château. Fragonard used sketchbooks as tools for rapid notation, and pages like this one offer evidence of his instinct for observing everyday life.

Sketch of a Family of Farm Workers, Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris), Black chalk — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Sketch of a Family of Farm Workers

Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)

Date: 1773-78

Medium: Black chalk

Dimensions: 9 3/8 × 7 1/4 in. (23.8 × 18.4 cm)

Classification: Drawings

Credit Line: Private collection

How Chalk Drawings are Made

How Chalk Drawings are Made

An illustrated explainer.

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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.