The Little Park, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, gouache on parchment, roughly 8 x 10″ (20 x 24 cm); in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum, NY.
I had the pleasure of seeing this delightful little gouache painting by the 18th century French Rococo painter in a show at the Morgan several years ago. I was aware of the larger oil of the same subject in the Wallace Collection in England (which I will feature in a subsequent post), and assumed this was a study for that painting.
However, the Morgan Library’s description indicates that this is a “small replica” of the larger work, presumed to have been done a year later than the oil.
Both the oil and this gouache painting have a great deal of visual charm, each in a way that takes good advantage of the respective strengths of the medium. There is also an etching of the same subject.
