The Little Park
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)
c. 1763
- Medium
- etching
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 14.4 x 21.8 cm (5 11/16 x 8 9/16 in.); Platemark: 11.2 x 16.5 cm (4 7/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
One of Fragonard’s earliest etchings, this picturesque view of an imaginary terraced Italian garden is perhaps inspired by memories of the grounds at the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, where he spent time in 1760. Fragonard’s spontaneously scribbled, willowy lines and his choice of black-gray ink give the etching a silvery quality that evokes the hazy atmosphere of hot Italian summers. Beneath the sun-dappled foliage, between the lion statues, a young woman encounters a youth resting on the steps.
