Portrait of Jean Honoré Fragonard
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This portrait of Fragonard at the age of sixty-five came to light only recently. Drawn in July 1797 and exhibited in the Salon of the following year, it is done in a dark chalk technique (reminiscent of mezzotint engravings) that became popular in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Fragonard’s sympathetic and intelligent face shows the effects of the passage of time. He holds to his heart a porte-crayon, a drawing instrument with black and white chalk—a poignant expression of his legacy as a draftsman.
Artwork Details
- Title: Portrait of Jean Honoré Fragonard
- Artist: Jacques Antoine Marie Lemoine (French, Rouen 1751–1824 Paris)
- Date: 1797
- Medium: Black chalk, stumping, and highlighted with white chalk
- Dimensions: 12 5/8 × 8 7/8 in. (32 × 22.5 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Private Collection
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints