The Happy Family
c. 1775
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall (oval): 53.9 × 65.1 cm (21 1/4 × 25 5/8 in.) framed: 73.66 × 83.82 × 10.16 cm (29 × 33 × 4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Timken Collection
Accession Number
1960.6.12
Art Historical Context
Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s *The Happy Family* (c. 1775) captures the playful spirit of French Rococo painting at its most intimate. Working in the final decades of the ancien régime, Fragonard specialized in light-filled scenes of domestic joy and romantic affection. The oval format, popular for over-door decorations in elegant Parisian interiors, invites viewers into a tender moment of family life rendered with the artist’s signature fluid brushwork and luminous color. Painted in oil on canvas, the work demonstrates Fragonard’s technical brilliance: rapid, confident strokes create a sense of mo...
About the Artist
Jean Honoré Fragonard · 1732–1806
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. Born in Grasse, he moved to Paris where he trained under Jean-Baptiste Chardin and François Boucher, winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1752. After studying in Italy alongside Hubert Robert, Fragonard returned to Paris in 1761 to fi...