AN INTERIOR BASED ON PENELOPE WEAVING

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Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard (attributed to) (1780-1850)

This oil sketch illustrates six women involved in weaving, one busily intent at the loom, undoubtedly a representation of Penelope weaving her famous tapestry. It is updated so that the Grecian dress is fashionably early nineteenth century and Penelope's tapestry has become the then ubiquitous female shawl, fringes suggesting highly prized cashmere, as befits her station. Appropriately portrayed as an Antique frieze, Fragonard is here at his most talented, the spirited brush strokes of oil on paper creating an obviously unfinished study for a larger work.

A-E Fragonard was influenced by his father Jean-Honoré Fragonard and his master Jacques-Louis David. He exhibited at the Salon from the age of thirteen, showing his talents for neo-classicism over the next twenty years. He was amongst the many talented artists employed to design models and decorations for the Manufacture de Sèvres from 1806- 1839 under the directorship of Alexandre Brongniart (1739-1813).

Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox Design: Drawings for Architecture Costume and the Decorative Arts from 1570, London, 1989
Derek E Ostergard, (ed) The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847, New York, 1997

Oil on paper (laid down on panel)

Dimensions: 101 x 253 mm (4 x 10 inches)

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