Studie

1765

"Coresus and Callirhoe" at the Salon: admission to the Academy

He exhibited at the Paris Salon the painting "Coresus and Callirhoe" (now in the Louvre), for which the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture admitted him as a member. Diderot devoted a lavish panegyric to it, and the king bought the painting and ordered it reproduced at the Gobelins manufactory.

second half of the 1760s

Abandoning history painting for "gallant scenes"

Despairing of attaining the position of first painter in the classical genre, he abandoned it for erotic genre scenes, which enjoyed the greatest success at the court of Louis XV. He soon became a fashionable artist — a master of pastoral landscapes, female portraits and small-format "cabinet pictures."

17 June 1769

Marriage to Marie-Anne Gérard

He married the miniature painter Marie-Anne Gérard; that same year their daughter Rosalie was born, who became one of her father's favorite models.

1773

Second journey to Italy with Bergeret de Grancourt

After a summer trip to Flanders, he set off for Italy as guide to Pierre-Jacques Onésyme Bergeret de Grancourt; Fragonard also designed a family château for him.

1774

Return through Central Europe

The journey ended in September 1774 after visits to Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Frankfurt and, finally, Strasbourg.