La Gimblette

This painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, known in French as La gimblette, dates from around 1770 and belongs to the late Rococo. It shows a young woman lying on her back in a bed heaped with bedding beneath a golden canopy, her legs raised and knees apart, holding a small white dog between them. Her open laughter and flushed face convey carefree play, while the discarded dressing gown on the floor and the nightcap on the pillow suggest she has just given herself over to fun. The dog's tail, which hides what the framing would otherwise reveal, is a telling detail of the work's provocative intent. Fragonard painted several versions of the subject, differing in composition, colour and execution, which suggests the scene was popular. In the mid-1760s he turned almost exclusively to small erotic pictures, clearly following Antoine Watteau. Here the sensual element lies not in the action but in the viewer's gaze, which seems to spy on the girl in her privacy. For this reason the work is now regarded as a symbol of the frivolity of Rococo society, handled with loose, highly virtuoso brushwork.

Painter

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Date

1770

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

89 × 70 cm

Museum

Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich

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