Bacchanal
Artist
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
(French, 1732 - 1806)
Date1763
MediumEtching on paper
DimensionsOverall: 5 3/4 x 8 1/4in. (14.6 x 21cm)
Image: 5 3/8 x 7 7/8in. (13.7 x 20cm)
Image: 5 3/8 x 7 7/8in. (13.7 x 20cm)
ClassificationsPRINTS
Credit LineGift of Edward W. Root
Terms
Object number53.107
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextOne of the most important practitioners of the French Rococo style was Jean-Honoré Fragonard. This etching is one of a series of four known as "Les Bacchanales" or "Les Jeux des Satrys." The scholar Marion Lou Grayson has noted that the series was supposedly inspired by a marble bas-relief of a young girls with satyrs that Fragonard saw. Around 1763-64, after his return to Paris from an extended sojourn in Rome, Fragonard experimented with printmaking. He produced around fifty prints, of which the four "Bacchanals" are the most admired. In this print the playful eroticism of the Rococo style is cloaked in the guise of rustic Classicism. Technically, the print was executed with the same breathtaking virtuosity that can be seen Fragonard's paintings.
PDS
February 2005
