Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Benevolent Women on Horseback Visiting a Village
Jean Honoré Fragonard French
Not on view
In this bold and energetic drawing, Fragonard put down his first ideas for a composition that he later treated in a more finished and detailed version. He incised the contours of the main forms, presumably as a means to transfer the design to another sheet of paper. Like Reading in the Kitchen (ca. 1775–80), this scene alludes to the concept of altruism as the cornerstone of a just and harmonious society. Fashionable women on horseback, understood to be on a charitable mission, pass a family of villagers seated beneath a tree. Both parents look up and make signs of gratitude: the father by lifting his hat and the mother by gesturing toward her children.
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