Portrait of a Young Boy, Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums With rosy, plump cheeks and gleaming wide eyes, Fragonard captures the robust, yet fleeting burst of childhood innocence in this diminutive portrait. A departure from his subtly erotic painting like The Swing, which gained him notoriety in the 1760s, this intimate portrait represented a profound shift in Fragonard’s practice. Many scholars speculate that this tender painting may indeed depict the artist’s son, Alexandre-Évariste, who was known affectionately within the family as “Monsieur Fanfan.” About 1780, Fragonard began painting these small portraits, possibly as a response to his child’s birth. Not all the portraits from this period are of the same child, but several represent one boy’s face over the span of a few years, suggesting that Fragonard knew the young sitter very well if he was not, indeed, the artist’s son. Archive Label 1999: This painting is one of a group of small portraits of little children by Fragonard, dating from ca. 1780-85, and may depict the artist's son, Alexandre-Évariste, who was known affectionately within the family as "Monsieur Fanfan." About 1780, Fragonard began painting these small portraits, possibly as a response to the child's birth. Not all the portraits are of the same child, but several represent one boy's face over the span of a few years, suggesting that Fragonard knew the young sitter very well if he was not, indeed, the artist's son. The portrait belongs to that series of images of the same boy, where he appears to be among the youngest of all the children painted. If this is a portrait of "Monsieur Fanfan," it would, therefore, be one of the earliest portraits of Alexandre-Évariste, who later became one of the most significant of nineteenth-century "Troubadour" artists.