The Cascade by Fragonard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2011

The Cascade
ca. 1775


Object Details

Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)

Date: ca. 1775

Medium: Oil on wood

Dimensions: 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (29.2 x 24.1 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Accession Number: 49.7.50


In 1756, having won the Prix de Rome, Fragonard departed for four years at the French academy in that city, a traditional rite of artistic passage. Practically nothing is known of his journey from Paris, but on the return trip he traveled by way of Florence to Venice, west to Marseilles, and north through Lyons. He visited the principal cities of Italy again in 1774, as well as Vienna and Frankfurt. This painting is most likely an imagined conglomeration of the kinds of gardens, architecture, and sculpture he encountered.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436319