The Tax Collectors (Les Traitants)

Jean Honoré Fragonard

1778 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

The subject of this print has never been verified; the current title first appeared in an 1859 publication. The etching’s crisp style, with flickering highlights and large swaths of untouched white paper, recalls the manner of the Venetian master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770). Fragonard could have seen Tiepolo’s prints during his two stays in Venice (with Saint-Non in 1761 and with Bergeret in 1774), and in Paris, where each new series was avidly sought by collectors.

Artist

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Date

1778

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1946