Fragonard's Progress of Love is among the most impressive decorative commissions of the eighteenth century, and this despite its sudden cancellation by Madame du Barry. Called upon to produce a series of panels for her pavillon at Louveciennes (designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux), Fragonard succeeded in uniting the gardens of the Villa d'Este with the landscape at Louveciennes. Recapturing the essence of villeggiatura and the vistas first experienced during his stay in Tivoli, Fragonard initiated an interplay of the real and painted setting. The Progress of Love became an escape, enticing Du Barry and her lover with its sensuous verdure. But reality destroyed all illusion, and Fragonard's fortune went the way of Du Barry's romance. Forced to choose between the tell-tale Progress of Love and an innocuous though fashionable replacement by Joseph-Marie Vien, Du Barry opted for propriety in her maison de plaisance. Years before, when spurned by Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour resorted to the iconography of friendship. Du Barry, facing a more serious predicament, drew upon the same iconography. However, even with l'amour et l'amitie ensconced in the last panel of the Progress of Love, fate ultimately displaced Fragonard's lovers at Louveciennes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28423 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Borys, Stephen Donald |
| Contributors | Glen, Thomas (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Art History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001443447, proquestno: NN00079, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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