The Louvre collection of drawings by Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) is one of the finest and most well-balanced there is. It provides an overview, from the beginning to the end of his career, through his different techniques and the variety of his themes, of the light-hearted determined and the feigned roguishness of one of the most popular and most misunderstood French artists. Fragonard shifts from being the most scrupulous observer of nature, whether it be the human figure or landscape, the creator of profoundly moving religious compositions or of frivolously charming interiors, or again the boisterously inventive and unbridled illustrator of Ariosto or Cervantes. He is also one of the most intent and sprightly interpreters of works of the past, and the Louvre collection allows us to have a close look at this fundamental aspect, in particular thanks to several spectacular, utterly personal copies after Rubens and Jordaens. He has verve and conviction in renewing graphic means: his black chalk is minute and vibrant, his red chalk hatched and bounding, his pen dancing, his washes are impulsive or delicate. Ever smiling, ever more serious than he might seem, Fragonard is certainly the most dazzling eighteenth-century French draughtsman.
