Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) - Lot 28

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) Four Bacchanals, or Games of Satyrs. 1763. Etching. Each 210 x 145. Baudicour 6-9; I.F.F. 2-5. Very fine and fresh proofs, the inscriptions on pl. 1 uninked (though perceptible), before the numbers. Small margins of 3 to 4 mm. "The date of 1763 on the first composition of this series, a bas-relief of two satyrs with hands joined to support a nymph, indicates that this group of four etchings by Fragonard was done in Paris, two years after he returned from Italy accompanied by Jean-Claude Richard, abbé de Saint-Non. The designs of the reliefs reflect the artist's study of Roman antiquities in Italy, and the first etching makes specific reference to an identifiable source, a marble bas-relief then in the Villa Mattei..." (V. Carlson, Regency to Empire, French Printmaking 1715-1814, The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1984, p. 152.)