The Swing And Collin-maillard Follower Of Fragonard 19th Century

Pair of very beautiful paintings, oils on canvas, depicting “La Balançoire” and “Collin-Maillard”, works painted at the beginning of the 19th century by a follower of Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Canvases in very good condition, with their cracks, very fresh original colors. Frames in very good original condition with channels with acanthus leaf spandrels, in wood and stucco gilded with gold leaf. Dimensions of the paintings on view in the oval, 44.5x36.5 cm Total dimensions, with frames, 68x59.5 cm The Swing or La Bascule is a painting by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard, created around 1750-1752, kept at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. The Colin-Maillard is a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, executed between 1750 and 1752, exhibited at the Toledo Museum of Art in the United States. Born in Grasse in 1732, Jean-Honoré Fragonard was the son of a glover boy. At the age of six, he left his hometown with his family who settled in Paris. His taste for painting appeared very early and he began working with Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), a major painter of still lifes and genre scenes. At fourteen, he joined the workshop of François Boucher (1703-1770). These two great artists allowed him to very quickly achieve exceptional technical mastery. In 1752, at the age of 20, he won the Grand Prix of the Royal Academy of Painting (Prix de Rome) and entered the Royal School of Protected Students, then directed by the painter Carle Van Loo (1705 -1765). The stay in this school, which only accepted the best, was three years. The students then left for the traditional stay at the French Academy in Rome for the winners of the Grand Prix de l'Académie. Fragonard remained there from 1756 to 1761. After a journey through the Italian cities of Florence, Bologna and Venice, he returned to Paris. The painting of the Venetian master Tiepolo had a profound influence on him, as did the baroque style of Pietro da Cortona (Stone of Cortona). Upon his return to France, Fragonard was welcomed as an established painter; he obtained recognition from the Court, public commissions and a workshop at the Louvre. He achieved financial ease that the political unrest of the end of the century would hardly affect. But Fragonard did not seek, like Boucher, to pursue an official career: he deliberately devoted himself to a clientele of art lovers. During the revolutionary period, Fragonard was appointed curator of the Louvre museum by the National Assembly. In 1805, he was expelled from the Louvre by imperial decree and then moved in with his friend Veri, at the Palais Royal. On August 22, 1806, he died of cerebral congestion. Fragonard is a great painting virtuoso, admired by certain impressionists like Renoir or Monet. He is capable of handling all genres happily. His work is therefore characterized by eclecticism and if the traditional mythological and religious scenes are not absent, there are also portraits, landscapes and genre scenes. The latter sometimes include an erotic dimension which in the past may have given a somewhat sulphurous image of the artist. Fragonard's landscapes are inspired by the great Dutch painters specializing in this genre and not by French classicism. Emblematic painter of the Rococo style, which was coming to an end in the 1770s, Fragonard shifted his style towards more neo-classical rigor from the Revolution of 1789. The representation of games is an opportunity to paint moving characters against a background enchanting landscapes. These scenes reflect the joy of living, carefreeness and frivolity, but also sometimes charming games of love. Between 1775 and 1780, Fragonard took up the theme of La Balançoire, but to emphasize the landscape. This painting is one of the most beautiful landscape paintings of the 18th century.