Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Watermark: pot (close to Heawood 3695).
This drawing has long been considered a depiction of the artist's daughter Rosalie, who died of consumption at age 18 in 1788. While the style and subject of the drawing--a red chalk study of a young woman in fashionable dress--is consistent with the larger group of red chalk studies of single figures from the 1770s (see also I, 289a), the large pillow, fire screen, and introspective mien of the sitter have supported the argument that the artist captured his daughter's final illness. As Perrin Stein noted, a counterproof reworked by Fragonard in brown wash contains a whimsical detail of a parrot perched atop the fire screen (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), an unlikely detail if one accepts the sentimental reading of the sheet. Stein argues for a date earlier in the 1770s, consistent with the artist's larger group of red chalk studies produced before his departure for Italy in October 1773.