Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Armoire (1778) Met Museum NYC Elegant curving lines, light whimsical color palettes, and motifs of young lovers surrounded by fantastical, storybook settings characterize the Rococo - an artistic movement that consumed the majority of 18th century France. The distinct Rococo painting style spread rapidly through the country, influencing all mediums from interiors and furnishings to clothing and prints. Printmaking is a unique practice excluded from the hierarchy of genres established by the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and was considered to be among the lowest forms of art.[1] Printmakers were not allowed to compete for the esteemed Prix de Rome, and their prints were rarely shown outside of a social context.[2] Most prints were made not to be sold, but rather to be exchanged with friends and spread thusly throughout the public.[3] Therefore, many artists like Francois Boucher (1703-1770) did not fully devote their careers to printmaking but continue to engage in the process to gain exposure and fame. The Armoire is an etching by one of the most beloved and influential Rococo artists, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), who studied under Boucher in the beginning of his artistic career and incorporated many of Boucher’s techniques into his work.[4] The technical process and repetitive nature of printmaking granted established artists a unique teaching tool. Printmakers were able to take a design drawn by their instructors and copy the image onto the plate to be printed.[5] Fragonard, for example, taught his sister-in-law Marguerite Gérard the process of etching by copying the paintings of old masters onto the plates.[6] Gerard was highly influenced by the works of artists from earlier in the 18th century, and frequently incorporated elements of form and dimension characteristic of Boucher and Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Etchings are the result of a process by which the image is created in relief and treated with acid before it can be inked and pressed.[11] First, the printmaker preps the plate with a layer of varnish, or ground, that protects the surface from acid. The plate is then ready to be incised with the design. Etching is an intaglio process, meaning that the design to be printed is engraved into the plate rather than relief prints that uses the raised surface to produce the image. After scratching out the metal beneath the treated plate, the plate is submerged in acid to expose the design. After wiping down the ground, the plate is ready to be inked and put through an etching press that will transfer the incised image onto the paper. The process of creating an etching in the 18th century was simple for artists like Fragonard to learn, because the process relies heavily on drawings to create the design. Printmaking was not recognized by the Academy, placing printmaking on the bottom of the hierarchy of genres and limiting the amount of engravers admitted into the Academy. [12] Printmakers like Fragonard were free from the boundaries of the Academy, able to create prints that would have been considered unfit subject matter for oil paintings. Fragonard rejected the traditional path of a history painter to pursue less prestigious media like etching and drawing for private commissions. Producing etchings for public consumption like the Armoire led to the production of many of the satirical political etchings produced leading up to the Revolution, like Mlle des Faveurs a la Promenade a Londres (1780).[13] The image pokes fun at the towering hair popularized by Marie Antoinette, a man shooting a bird that flew out of her ridiculous locks. Etchings are a medium of artistic freedom to be fun, to make work that does not fit neatly within the confines of the Royal Academy during the 18th century. Watteau was the first artist to paint a fête galante scene, which combined elements of contemporary Parisian fashion with mythological settings and situations. Influential patrons in Versailles, like official court mistress to Louis XV Madame Pompadour, were enamored with all things Rococo, prompting the appearance of stylistic elements such as gilded vegetal forms and swirling lines in myriad media. Aspiring artists of the era were classically trained at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture by the most respected and established artists including Boucher, who was the favorite painter of Madame Pompadour.[7] Academic training and exhibiting at the Salon, juried exhibitions curated by the Academy, in the beginning of the 18th century was necessary to achieving success and royal patronage. As Rococo reached its height in the middle of the century, however, artists such as Fragonard began to seek public recognition and artistic freedom over the praise of the Academy. Vital to achieving public recognition was the medium of etching, the printmaking technique most suited for draftsman that allowed for multiple copies to be produced and circulated throughout the city. Fragonard’s the Armoire exemplifies the potential possibilities of etchings; its subject matter and style are thematically characteristic of a Rococo print. Fragonard’s career highlights the crucial shift that occurred in 18th century France when artists begin to engage more intimately with the public and less exclusively with the elite through the medium of printmaking. Fragonard began his career in the studio of Boucher, copying after his paintings until he was skilled enough for Boucher to sponsor him in the Prix de Rome, which he won despite not being a member of the Academy. While in Rome, Fragonard excelled in his studies and attended the École Royale des Elèves Protégés upon his return, as was the path to becoming a successful history painter.[8] After exhibiting his Reception piece, the first step in entering the Academy, Coresus and Callirhoë at the Salon in 1765 and Group of Infants in the Sky in 1767, Fragonard abandoned the traditional path of becoming a history painter. He continued his career as an artist, but he never again exhibited at the Salon or submitted an admission piece, leaving him an incomplete member of the Academy. Instead, Fragonard began spending all his time painting, drawing, and producing prints for private commissions.[9] Fragonard is unique among other 18th century contemporaries due to his diverse media and apparent disregard for Academic success.Fragonard’s interest in exploring various mediums like brown wash drawing and printmaking rather than conforming to the structure of the Academy peaked during the 1770s, during which he produced the Armoire (1778). [10] The print depicts two lovers who have been caught in an embarrassing situation by the young women’s parents, who enter the room to find a bashful suitor hiding in the armoire, his hat hung suspiciously over his groin. His lover partially obstructs her face with her dress, turned away from her furious parents who lean in angrily. The bed in the background is left disheveled, other members of the family peer in at the spectacle. Such a risqué narrative perfectly exemplifies the core values of the Rococo: love and mischief. The humorous placement of the hat is a farce only suited for printmaking. Fragonard’s interests in genre scenes and young romance are the intimate, entertaining narratives the public looked to in etchings. Fragonard’s talents in drawing are highlighted in his etching, carving fluid curving lines and patches of shadow to define forms like the hefted up skirt of the mother or the unkempt bed. The dramatic, over-expressive facial features of the main figures in the print are emphasized by the shadow cast upon the face of the father and the exaggerated brow of the mother. The placement of meticulous details beside flat color and curling lines in the etching could only result from the technical process of printmaking. [1] Perrin Stein, “Introduction,” Artists and Amateurs: Etching in Eighteenth-Century France, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013.4-9.
[2] Ibid. [3] Ibid. [4] Stein, Perrin. “Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/frag/hd_frag.htm (October 2004) [5] Stein, “Introduction,” Artists and Amateurs: Etching in Eighteenth-Century France, 9. [6] Richard Rand, in French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, D.C., 2009: 149-150. [7] Ibid. [8] Stein, “Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/frag/hd_frag.htm (October 2004) [9] Ibid. [10]"Jean Honoré Fragonard | The Armoire | The Met." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/360051. [11]Thompson, Author: Wendy. "The Printed Image in the West: Etching | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/etch/hd_etch.htm. [12] Stein, “Introduction,” Artists and Amateurs: Etching in Eighteenth-Century France, 9. [13]"Mlle des Faveurs a la Promenade a Londres." British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1335361&partId=1.
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I hope this paint decanter get's funded, will save us all so much time and cash.
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