Dame au chien (c.1769)

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré (1732-1806)

Dame au chien (A Woman with a Dog)
c.1769
Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 65.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

This painting belongs to a celebrated group of Fragonards known as the fantasy figures. The canvas is broadly brushed, with exceptional virtuosity, panache, and a sense of speed. The model has recently been identified as the aristocratic salon hostess Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson. Her costume recalls the court dress of Queen Marie de Médicis (1573–1642) in Rubens’s famous series of paintings (Musée du LouvreParis) which Fragonard had occasion to study in 1767. There is humor in the contrast between the ample proportions of the lady and the small size of her lapdog; the curl of his silky tail echoes her gray ringlets. (MET)