before the Revolution it is necessary to understand the art of
Watteau, of Boucher, of Fragonard, and of Chardin. Of its pictured
romance, Watteau and Boucher and Fragonard hold the keys. To shut the
book of these is to be blind to the revelation of the greater part of
that romance. Watteau states the new France of light airs and gaiety
and pleasant prospects, tinged with sweet melancholy, that became the
dream of a France rid of the pomposity and mock-heroics of the Grand
Monarque; Boucher fulfils the century; Fragonard utters its swan's
note. The art of Fragonard embodies astoundingly the pulsing evening
of a century of the life of France, uttering its gay blithe note,
skimming over the dangerous deeps of its mighty significance, yet not
wholly disregarding the deeps as did the art of his two great
forerunners. His is the last word of that mock-heroic France that
Louis the Fourteenth built on stately and pompous pretence; that Louis
the Fifteenth still further corrupted by the worship of mere elegance;
that Louis the Sixteenth sent to its grave--a suffering people out of
which a real France arose, from mighty and awful travail, like a
giant, and stood bestriding the world, a superb reality.
The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London
The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh