Le Songe d'Amour
Medium
Etching, third state
Dimensions
sheet: 22 15/16 x 17 15/16 in. (58.2 x 45.6 cm) image: 21 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. (55.3 x 42.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
Accession Number
47.100.438
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
"Le Songe d’Amour" (The Dream Love) is an etching created by Nicholas François Regnault after a design by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, one of the leading figures of the French Rococo movement. Fragonard’s work is celebrated for its playful elegance, delicate linework, and lighthearted exploration of romantic and sensual themes. This print, issued in its third state, reflects the Rococo interest in fleeting moments of pleasure and fantasy, rendered here through the interplay of figures, animals, and putti. As an etching, the work demonstrates how the medium allowed artists to reproduce paintings for a broader audience in the eighteenth century. The sheet’s generous dimensions and careful tonal gradations highlight Regnault’s skill in translating Fragonard’s fluid brushwork into the precise language of printmaking. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1947, the impression preserves the Rococo spirit of refined intimacy while inviting viewers to imagine the tender narrative unfolding among its elegantly posed men, women, dogs, and cherubs.
About the Artist
Jean Honoré Fragonard|Nicholas François Regnault · 1732–1806
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. Born in Grasse, he moved to Paris where he trained under Jean-Baptiste Chardin and François Boucher, winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1752. After studying in Italy alongside Hubert Robert, Fragonard returned to Paris in 1761 to fi...