François I Brandishing a Sword
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash with graphite underdrawing and white and yellow gouache heightening on wove paper
Dimensions
16.9 × 12.2 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Accession Number
2019.254
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard developed a dramatic, narrative style of drawing that was well suited for illustration, and this sheet may have been one such design. Like many of his contemporaries, Fragonard was interested in modern history, focusing on important figures of the recent past. Here, he likely depicted the French king François I (1494–1547), a frequent subject of his work.