Mountain Landscape at Sunset
Jean Honoré Fragonard·c. 1765
Historical Context
This small oil sketch of a mountain landscape at sunset, painted on paper around 1765, reveals Fragonard's response to the Italian landscape during his travels. While best known for his figure paintings, Fragonard was an accomplished landscapist who made numerous plein air studies in Italy. These spontaneous sketches, capturing specific effects of light and atmosphere, anticipate the landscape painting practices of the Romantics and Impressionists.
Technical Analysis
The oil-on-paper technique allows for rapid, spontaneous execution that captures the transient effects of sunset light on mountains. The palette is dominated by warm oranges and purples against cooler blue-gray shadows, applied with broad, fluid strokes that suggest rather than define the landscape forms.
Provenance
(Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1996);[1] (James Mackinnon, London); purchased 14 February 1997 through (W.M. Brady & Co., New York) by NGA. [1] According to a verbal communication from James Mackinnon, he acquired the painting in 1996 at a small auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, where it was undocumented and uncatalogued.
