Fragonard: Painting Out of Time

At the time of his death in 1806, the Rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard had not painted for two decades. Following a period of huge public success, the painter's reputation fell. Fragonard: Painting Out of Time takes this prolonged abstention as a point of departure to investigate the maverick personality of Fragonard within the lively society of eighteenth-century France.

Personally secretive, Fragonard created revealing images that undermined a normal sense of space and time. Satish Padiyar investigates the life and work of the last of the libertine painters of the ancien regime, a contemporary of Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and presents dramatic new perspectives on works such as The Progress of Love, painted for Madame du Barry, the infamous The Bolt and the ever popular The Swing. 

• Written by Satish Padiyar
• Published in 2020
• Hardback edition
• 247 pages with 114 colour illustrations
• Dimensions: 20cm x 25.5cm