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National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION

Tour: 18th-Century France — Boucher and Fragonard

Overview | Start Tour

image of The Visit to the Nursery image of The Old Bridge
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Overview

The Enlightenment

During the eighteenth century, Enlightenment thinkers transformed western Europe into a modern society. Critical of orthodoxy, these philosophes radically changed the way men thought about religion, economics, political philosophy, and education. Their method was rational and secular, founded on a belief that the exercise of reason alone could reveal ultimate truths and move man to improve his condition.

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Captions

1.
1François Boucher, Venus Consoling Love, 1751
2Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Diana and Endymion, c. 1753/1755
3Jean-Honoré Fragonard, A Game of Horse and Rider, 1767/1773
4Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, probably c. 1765
5François-Hubert Drouais, Group Portrait, 1756
6Jean-Honoré Fragonard, A Young Girl Reading, c. 1776
2.
7Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Visit to the Nursery, before 1784
8Hubert Robert, The Old Bridge, probably c. 1775