Shop art print and framed art The Love Letter by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

The Reading Girl or La Jeune Fille lisant is a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard from around 1770. The technique used is oil on canvas, remarkable for the variety of brushstrokes, which makes it a good example of the rapid and vigorous brushwork developed by Fragonard and sometimes described by his contemporaries as "fencing". It measures 81.1 cm by 64.8 cm. The painting is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. It was donated to the museum in 1961 by Mrs Mellon Bruce, in memory of her father, Andrew W. Mellon. The painting had previously belonged to Dr Tuffier. The painting depicts a young girl with a book in her right hand, the other leaning back in an armchair and lost in her reading. Compared with Fragonard's other paintings, this one is calmer. It is a scene of a young woman's erudition. We could call this painting a portrait, even though she is not looking at us. It should be noted that the posture of her hand and her back (she is standing very straight despite the large cushion) show that she has had an education in [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the rococo style.

 

« The Love Letter » is kept at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

 

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