A Gathering at Wood's Edge

ca. 1770–73

Not on view

Unlike the majority of Fragonard's red chalk landscapes, made during a summer at Tivoli in 1760, this drawing is a work of the artist's maturity, probably dating to just before his second trip to Italy in 1773–74. Dense deciduous trees recall the forests around Paris rather than the Roman countryside. The unhesitating, even virtuoso, handling suggests that this is an independent work, probably created in the studio from a related plein-air study now in a private collection. A stand of mature trees, bursting with profuse sunlit foliage, guards the shady entrance to the woods. In a characteristic manipulation of scale, Fragonard presents small groupings of elegant figures, half lost in shadow, as restrained echoes of the vigor and fecundity of the overgrown landscape. The dramatic naturalism associated with the Dutch landscapists, especially Jacob van Ruisdael, is here merged with a vision of nature as a welcoming milieu for aristocratic dalliance, a legacy of Watteau's fêtes galantes.

Artwork Details

Title: A Gathering at Wood's Edge
Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
Date: ca. 1770–73
Medium: Red chalk
Dimensions: 14 3/4 x 19 3/8 in. (37.5 x 49.2 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995
Object Number: 1995.101
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Jean Honoré Fragonard

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Danse de satyres, Jean Honoré Fragonard French, Etching, first state — Danse de satyres
Jean Honoré Fragonard
n.d.

The Vision of Saint Jerome, Jean Honoré Fragonard French, Etching, first state — The Vision of Saint Jerome
Jean Honoré Fragonard
Johann Liss
1763–64

Bacchante et jeune satyre, Jean Honoré Fragonard French, Etching — Bacchante et jeune satyre
Jean Honoré Fragonard
n.d.

Bacchanale - Satyr and Nymph with Infant and Infant Satyr, Jean Honoré Fragonard French, Etching, second state — Bacchanale - Satyr and Nymph with Infant and Infant Satyr
Jean Honoré Fragonard
n.d.

The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, Jean Honoré Fragonard French, Black chalk counterproof, re-worked in black chalk — The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
Jean Honoré Fragonard
Mattia Preti (Il Cavalier Calabrese)
ca. 1761

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