JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD (GRASSE 1732-1806 PARIS)

From at least 1790, when it was sold at auction, this typically risqué sheet by Fragonard was paired with a drawing of equal size and in the same technique, The frightened flock (private collection, New York; see Dupuy-Vachey, op. cit., no. 40, ill.). While their association is not completely obvious, in both works animals play an important role; in The frightened flock, sheep run near a milestone, while a shepherd and his dog approach from the left, seemingly running towards a goal outside the picture plane. They may or may not have been conceived as a pair; Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey has suggested a slightly earlier date for the present drawing than for the other sheet, which could have been made around 1765. The appeal to eighteenth-century and later drawings collectors of such lively – and, as here, bawdy – subjects is easily understood, as is that of Fragonard’s virtuosic use of wash, which needed nothing more than a light black chalk sketch to bring an amusing scene to life.