Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011609Orpheus and Eurydice (recto); Figure Studies (verso)
About the Artwork
Quick drawings could serve a variety of purposes, and it is not always clear today why an artist created a particular sketch. This one may record a painting Fragonard saw during a journey to Italy, or capture an idea he was considering for a painting of his own. Orpheus, identified by the lute, grasps for his love Eurydice as she is pulled down into Hades. The snarling animals near his feet may represent Cerberus, the multiheaded guard dog of the underworld.
Provenance
1980: Ex collection Lucien Goldschmidt, New York, NY ?–2009: Joseph McCrindle, New York, NY, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH June 8, 2009–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)
- Date
- c. 1761
- Medium
- Black and gray chalks on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 28.9 x 22.7 cm (11 3/8 x 8 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle
- Accession no.
- 2009.152
More by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011609
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