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An Homage to Gluck

ca. 1777-82
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Artistic genius was often depicted through allegory in the eighteenth century. Here, Fragonard pays homage to Austrian composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, who enjoyed great popularity in Paris during the second half of the 1770s. Gluck, in the form of a portrait bust, presides over the scene, flanked by busts of the ancient poets Homer and Virgil. In the foreground a figure in antique dress sits at a desk. He holds a pen in his right hand and indicates a lyre and a palette with his left—traditional symbols of artistic inspiration.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: An Homage to Gluck
  • Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1777-82
  • Medium: Brown wash over black chalk underdrawing
  • Dimensions: 14 1/8 × 18 1/8 in. (35.8 × 46 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Irene Roosevelt Aitken
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints