Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Portrait of a Magistrate
Jean Honoré Fragonard French
Not on view
Fragonard’s patron Bergeret must have asked the artist to draw portraits of his friends and acquaintances during their two-week stay at Bergeret’s château in October 1773. We do not know the identity of this solemn man in a magistrate’s robes, attending to his work with quill pen in hand. The artist’s attention is focused less on the sitter’s face than on the fall of sunlight on the heavy folds of the fabric.
A Latin inscription at lower right, written by a previous owner, playfully questions whether the animal peeking out from under the tablecloth is a dog or a fox. The artist likely intended the detail as a note of levity to offset the sobriety of the portrait.
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