Fragonard

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fragonard, by Haldane Macfall
MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR EDITED BY . . T. LEMAN HARE
FRAGONARD
In the Same Series
In Preparation
PLATE I.—CHIFFRE D’AMOUR. Frontispiece
(In the Wallace Collection)
Fragonard, like his master Boucher, soon found that the pompous, historical, and religious pictures which the critics demanded of him, pleased no one but the critics. It was a fortunate day for him when he turned his back upon them, and employed his charming gifts upon the statement of the life of his day. And in few paintings that created his fame has he surpassed the fine handling of this scene, in which the girl cuts her lover’s initials on the trunk of a tree—the dainty figure silhouetted against the dreamlike background of sky and tree that he loved so well. There is over all the glamour of the poetic statement supremely done.
LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.

TO MY FRIEND WALTER EMANUEL