Seated Man Reading

Jean Honoré Fragonard

1774 · Red chalk · Drawings and Prints

This confident drawing of a seated man absorbed in his book is closely related to a group of portraitlike drawings made by Fragonard on his second trip to Italy (1773–74) sponsored by the fermier général Pierre-Jacques-Onésyme Bergeret de Grancourt. Drawn in a rapid, confident outline and shaded to convey tone and shadow, this drawing presents its subject with an admirable economy of means. Oddly cropped at the ankle, the sitter may have been observed by the artist across a table and partially obscured. The unconventional composition attests to the informality of the sheet.

Artist

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Date

1774

Medium

Red chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Howard J. Sachs and Mr. Peter G. Sachs, in memory of Miss Edith L. Sachs, 1978