The Love Letter

Eighteenth-century artists and collectors held oil sketches in high esteem, believing they revealed painters' initial ideas and their physical touch in each piece. This finished painting embodies that emerging aesthetic. Fragonard's sketch features vigorous brushstrokes of varying thickness, capturing sunlight as it illuminates the woman's cap, powdered face, flowers, dress, and bedraggled dog at the center of the canvas. This work is not a portrait but a genre scene, suggesting a narrative that extends beyond the frame, hinted at by a letter accompanied by a bouquet. The simple theme of love letters had been popular in the previous century with Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries.