The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs

Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs

1763
(French, 1732–1806)
France, 18th century
etching
Sheet: 13.3 x 20 cm (5 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1924.251
Catalogue raisonné: Wildenstein III ; Le Blanc 18 : Portalis & Beraldi II.210.1
Location: not on view

Description

The set of Bacchanales was made two years after Fragonard returned from a trip to Italy where he studied Roman antiquities. However, these light-hearted vignettes owe more to the effervescent aspects of the 18th-century Rococo period than to a serious understanding of antiquity and Roman art. Fragonard's black chalk drawing for Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs—after a marble bas-relief then in the Villa Mattei in Rome—and two other studies for these etchings still exist. Although this is one of Fragonard's earliest prints, it shows that he had already mastered the process: the etched lines effectively suggest the weight and movement of the figures and also provide a uniform system of light and shading for the decorative backdrop of foliage.
  • Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/26/01-10/28/01. "Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19th-Century French Prints".
    Real Prints: Reproduction or Invention. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 7-May 17, 1987).
    French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 2-May 16, 1982).
    Neo-classicism: Style and Motif. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
    Prints of the Fifteenth to Twentieth Century from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 5-September 12, 1934).
    Miscellaneous Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 23-October 23, 1924).
  • {{cite web|title=Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs|url=false|author=Jean-Honoré Fragonard|year=1763|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.251