THE FOUNTAIN OF LOVE, AFTER JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD (1732-1806)

A group in biscuit depicting "The Fountain of Love" after the famous painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), an artist whose work was considered in the 18th century as art of the decadence and corruption of the Ancien Régime. When he died in 1806, the painter was all but forgotten. Fifty years later, he came back into fashion and his paintings were once again sold. In the 1850s, the Goncourt brothers described the painting in glowing terms: "It is still night, a night of stormy mystery weighing heavily on dark trees and richly scented plantations. Two lovers crowned with roses rush forward. The wind hits the woman's throat and pushes her tunic back. They lean on the edge of the basin, the fountain of love, and approach like starving men, thirst and desire on their lips, under the benevolence of several cupids. This painting is brilliant because Fragonard captures the sense of passion, the urgency of desire, in a fine allegory of sexual desire". Our biscuit is a faithful interpretation of the painter's painting, with the two lovers shown in profile, running towards the fountain of love inhabited by three putti, one of whom hands them the cup containing the joy of their satisfaction. Roses are scattered at their feet. As in Fragonard's work, biscuit exudes a powerful eroticism. The scene is inverted in relation to the original, no doubt due to the fact that it is based on a period engraving. Indeed, the painting was frequently reproduced in engravings in the mid-19th century. Fragonard's original painting is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Napoleon III period, Circa: 1850 Dim: W:17cm, D:24cm, H:25cm.