Getty Museum
Making Fritters (Les Beignets)
Creator
Jean-Honoré FragonardFrench Artist · 1732–1806
All works by this person →Born in the small city of Grasse, Jean-Honoré Fragonard moved to Paris with his family in 1738. While still in his teens, he apprenticed to Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin for just six months and then worked in François Boucher's studio. He won the Prix de Rome in 1752, then spent three preparatory years under Carle Vanloo before studying at the Académie de France in Rome from 1756 to 1761. Fragonard
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1782
- Medium
- Brush and brown ink over graphite
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
One of the greatest draftsmen of all time, Fragonard is most famous for wash drawings such as this one. The frenzied joy of the scene, with its roaring fire and roiling mound of forms and faces, is matched by the surging energy with which he applied the media. Fragonard began with a flurry of rapid-fire graphite lines that map out the complex, multi-figured composition. In a second attack, he loaded his brush with numerous gradations of warm brown wash. A third vital component is his use of the white paper (called the reserve) for the highest lights. The three elements of the graphite, the wash, and the paper interact dynamically to create a sense of evanescent movement and enveloping atmosphere.
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