The Shirt Removed
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1770
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Artist
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard
- Date
- 1770
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 0,35 m x 0,425 m (formato ovalado)
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Reference
- XDV-2585
What the museum label doesn't tell you
A chubby putto yanks the sheet off with both hands, as if undressing someone were child's play. In a way, it is: the whole canvas has that loose, almost improvised brushwork of someone painting fast, unafraid of showing the gesture. That very lightness -so delightful here- nearly buried Fragonard's reputation. When this painting resurfaced in Paris in 1860, the Goncourt brothers rescued him from post-Revolutionary oblivion, but filed him away as a frivolous, boudoir painter. It took until the 20th century for anyone to look past the cherub and see the hand behind it. Sometimes what saves you is also what typecasts you.
