From 3 October 2007 to 13 January 2008, the Jacquemart-André Museum opened its doors to the work of an exceptional artist: Jean-Honoré Fragonard, an artist who illustrated so brilliantly the pleasures of the century in which he lived: gallant pleasures and pleasures of the countryside, but also literary and artistic pleasures.

The Bicentenary of the death of Fragonard: a long-awaited occasion to pay homage to the artist

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the death of Fragonard (the artist died in Paris in 1806 at the age of 74), it was important that Paris, the city where Fragonard spent his entire career, should pay homage to one of the greatest painters of the eighteenth century. In France, no major exhibition of the artist’s work has been put on for twenty years.

Through around one hundred works taken from around the world, the exhibition highlights the work of one of the greatest painters of the eighteenth century who is an eminent representative of the tastes and the culture of his time. The Jacquemart-André Museum, which has a wealth of works from this period, was designed in an entirely natural manner so as to provide an appropriate setting to host an exhibition which proposes to revisit the artist’s work and show it in a completely new light. Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey, an art historian and author of two books on Fragonard, is the curator of the exhibition.

Fragonard, painter of the pleasures of the century in which he lived

The artist wonderfully transcribes the beautiful spirit and the tastes of his time. The variety of his brushstrokes corresponds to the variety of subject matter for which his contemporaries had a fondness. Through this multitude of themes, Fragonard brings the spirit of the century in which he lived back to life.

An unpublished Collection of the works of Fragonard

This original and stimulating perspective of the artist’s work has been made possible due to the loan of around one hundred works from France and abroad belonging to the most prestigious public institutions and private collections (Musée du Louvre, Ecole Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, National Gallery in Washington, British Museum in London, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica de Rome, Kunsthalle de Hambourg).
Several works are unpublished. Others have never before been exhibited in France and have not featured in any of the retrospectives on the artist. These works belong to public and private collections from around the world.
This exceptional exhibition, which brings together series dedicated to Roland furieux and Don Quixote that are now scattered all over the world, creates itself a unique event.