Sleeping Venus by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)

I haven't featured many of the works of Fragonard on these pages, which is something I need to remedy as he is one of my favourite eighteenth century painters. Here is A Young Girl Sleeping or Une jeune Italienne à demi-nue, couchée volupteusement sur un lit de repos, où elle s'endormie as it was described when sold in 1776 for a thousand livres (the equivalent of about £10,000 based on the value of gold then). This was an early nude by Fragonard, painted when he was in his most Boucheresque phasem during his first trip to Italy from 1756 to 1761, so he would have been in his twenties at the time. In fact, it was the only nude he painted in this period but is a forerunner of the tastefully erotic work he would do later in life.

The picture disappeared from the record at the end of the eighteenth century and only reappeared in 2014 when it was put up for auction. Unsigned, due to a piece of luck it could be positively identified, as someone, at the original 1766 auction had made a quick sketch of the painting in their catalogue and this had been preserved in the Bibliothèque National. It was sold in 2014 for the comparatively bargain price pf $395.000.  Well worth the money!

Venus with a dog 1: By Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Young woman playing with dog (La Gimblette) (c.1770)

 Artists have quite often included dogs in erotic art, not necessarily because of any desire to depict women in intimate congress with them but more, we would suggest, to imply something of the smell of a woman; particularly their nether regions, as we will see in a future post.

Here we have two definitely erotic, but also delicate, works by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806).  Fragonard was born in the world capital of perfume, Grasse.  Originally destined to be a notary, his artistic talent was spotted, as an eighteen year old, by François Boucher and his progress was so rapid that he won the Prix de Rome even before he enrolled in the Academy.  After studying in Rome he became a favourite of the court of Louis XV, producing a number of erotic works for private consumption.  The French Revolution deprived him of his wealthy patrons and he himself felt it sensible to leave Paris for the country, where he continued to paint, contributing to his total of over 550 completed paintings. However, by the time he returned to Paris, a few years before his death, he had been totally forgotten and remained so for many decades.  Now he has been rehabilitated as one of the great masters of French painting and a precursor of the Impressionists.

Fragonard’s approach to this small but distinct genre includes these two paintings, which rely for their erotic effect on conveying a strong tactile sense, in similar poses, revealing the backs of the subjects’ thighs.  

In the top painting, Young Woman Playing with Dog,  the dog is in the shadow, whereas the light in the painting is focussed on that shadowed, suggestive area between her thighs.  The subject was interpreted by several sculptors, including Fragonard's great grandson, Antonin Fragonard (1857-1887).

This picture was also interpreted by several artists and printmakers. In this one, obviously based on a print of the painting as it is reversed, the girl's nether regions are carefully concealed by a sheet.  The dog has changed colour too.

Girl with dog (c. 1770)

The one above, Girl with Dog,  is on display in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.  The contast between the dog’s fluffy tail and the girl’s inner thighs are, no doubt, the cause of her sweet smile although it is painted in such a way as to (just) allow for a more innocent explanation.

Both paintings are sometimes known as La Gimblette (a sort of pastry) Fragonard produced several versions, some now lost, where the girl is depicted as offering a pastry to the dog.  Considered very risqué at the time, engravings of it were marked “not for display”.

In this version of Fragonard's picture, produced as a miniature, no doubt for a gentleman collector, the dog's tail has been shortened to reveal the tip of its tail just stroking the girl's exposed mound.