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Our Plein Air Heritage
Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)
Rediscovered more than 25 years ago, this small plein air oil sketch sheds light on a little-known aspect of Jean Honoré Fragonard’s practice. Described as “a quick response to nature, as if the artist were recording an impression glimpsed from a carriage window as it rolled through the countryside,” it confirms that although drawing en plein air was well established by the mid-18th century, the artist was an early adopter of painting full-color aides memoires outdoors.
Beginning with paper prepared with a thin white ground, Fragonard quickly outlined the major forms, using black chalk or crayon. He then thinly brushed in the foreground and the masses of trees with oil, returning with thicker brushstrokes to add volume and character to the foliage. The mountain range at the lower center and the cloudy sky were painted with broader, more opaque passages, with the blue of the sky at times describing the contours of the dark green trees.
Despite the obvious spontaneity of the study, the artist took care to compose the scene, balancing the heavy mass of trees at the right with smaller bushes and clouds at the left.
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