National Gallery Of Art | Audio

Marc Fumaroli (professor emeritus at the Collège de France and former Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor at the National Gallery of Art) examines four landscape paintings by Jean Honoré Fragonard from the period 1775/1780: A Game of Hot Cockles, Blindman’s Buff, The Swing, and A Game of Horse and Rider. In contrast to the pleasure-seeking pursuits usually identified in these garden scenes, Fumaroli sees fearful apprehension in Fragonard’s ambiguous depiction of natural settings and human expressions.