The Smile of Reason: Evolution of Portrait Painting in Enlightenment France. 8

Fragonard’s Fantasy Portraits.

Very far in style and intention from La Tour’s naturalism are the portraits de fantaisie of Fragonard which return us to the problem of how these images of people (some known, some not) should be considered examples of the portrait genre, or not. For example, “The Fantasy Figure in Blue” (1769, above) is thought to depict Fragonard’s patron the Abbé de St Non, given that the inscription says “Portrait of the Abbé de St Non painted by Fragonard in an hour’s time.” However, the inscription may have been added later, maybe to increase the sale value of these works because St Non would be associated with a “noble tradition.”¹ But the major problem here is that nobody knows what St Non looked like; it is difficult to identify some of these sitters, despite the presence of inscriptions or knowledge about the artist’s career and his social networks. Nevertheless, what seems indisputable is that Fragonard’s fantasy portrait seems to have exploited the portrait genre, but literally framed it within the discourse of a small group of contacts and patrons who were fascinated by the aesthetics of the brushwork² that Fragonard manipulated in these images, aesthetic effects which had social as well as artistic connotations for those who viewed this group of paintings. The difference between Fragonard’s fantasy portraits and the more naturalised treatment of the portrait can be seen by comparing his “Music” (1769) with Greuze’s portrait of La Live de Jully playing a harp, the model for the more aesthetically pronounced reworking of it by Fragonard.³

1Sheriff, Fragonard, 163.

2A whole terminology of paint handling appeared in the circles of the Academy and related groups which helped to place the artist on the same level as the courtier, ibid, 117f.

3Sheriff compares these two paintings.