Les traits du génie - Dessins de Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard et Marguerite Gérard

Catalogue of the exhibition Les Traits du Génie. Drawings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard, presented at the Perfume Museum, Grasse (27 June - 26 October 2025).

Born in Grasse on 5 April 1732, Jean-Honoré Fragonard moved to Paris at the age of five. A pupil of Chardin and then Boucher, he enjoyed dazzling success but was quickly forgotten. It was not until the mid-19th century that his work was rediscovered by collectors and art historians.

A genius of painting and drawing, Fragonard was influenced by his travels in Italy, Flanders and Holland. Encountering new landscapes, but above all artists from past centuries such as Michelangelo and Rubens, was an inexhaustible source of inspiration and wonder for him, which he captured in numerous drawings.

Fragonard also gave free rein to his imagination and speed of execution in scenes of everyday life. These subjects made the artist's reputation, without him ever abandoning the ‘grand genre’ of mythology and religion. He also lent his pencil to the illustration of literary texts, such as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Cervantes' Don Quixote and La Fontaine's Fables.

Along with Fragonard, Grasse is also the birthplace of a family of artists. His wife Marie-Anne Gérard was a painter of miniatures. Their son Alexandre-Évariste had a brilliant career as a painter in the first half of the 19th century, as did his sister-in-law and pupil, Marguerite Gérard.

Featuring some sixty drawings from the collections of the Louvre Museum alongside collections from museums in Grasse, this exhibition and its catalogue offer visitors a broad overview of the prolific graphic work of Jean-Honoré Fragonard and his family.

More than 60 drawings reproduced and documented. Textbook in English at the end.