Fragonard's Progress of Love

An essay by Xavier F. Salomon paired with a contribution by award-winning novelist Alan Hollinghurst bring to life Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s (1732–1806) Progress of Love, a series of fourteen paintings considered by many to be the artist’s masterpiece. The paintings were commissioned in 1771 for the comtesse du Barry, to be installed in 1772 in Louveciennes, the pavilion outside Paris built for her by her lover, Louis XV. By 1773 the canvases, The Pursuit, The Meeting, The Lover Crowned, and ...