Affiche The Stolen Kiss by Fragonard, Large

The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honore Fragonard, oil painting on canvas, 1780s, is a fine example of late Rococo genre painting with its lighthearted subject matter, sumptuous painterly treatment and attention to textures of elegant fabrics in a warm interior scene. Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a late Rococo painter of the French Ancien Régime whose works were distinguished by painterly facility and exuberance. Originally a pupil of Chardin, Fragonard produced a large number of works until the growing fashion of neo-classicism and the French Revolution forced him to flee into obscurity. Fragonard’s reputation revived in the late 19th century, when his sense of color, relaxed hedonistic subject matter and painterly brushwork inspired new generations of the Impressionists such as Renoir.