MANAGE as best you can, said Nature, and pushed me into existence. Thus the mild genius of 18th century French painting, Jean Honoré Fragonard, described his own beginnings. A child of Provence, Fragonard was raised in the soft sunshine, on vine-covered hills, with the Mediterranean and the mountains as his horizon. He studied under Boucher, came to fame in Paris, was a friend of Madame du Barry and American Ambassador Benjamin Franklin. Almost nothing more is known of Fragonard's life. With typical breeziness, he signed himself "Frago." and painted himself just thrice. One self-portrait is in the Louvre, a second in...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
