| Jean-Claude Richard, Abbot of Saint-Non, Dressed 'à l'Espagnole' | |
| Artist: | Jean-Honoré Fragonard |
| Year: | c. 1769 |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 93.8 |
| Width Metric: | 73.8 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| Museum: | Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya |
| City: | Barcelona |
The Jean-Claude Richard, Abbot of Saint-Non, Dressed à l'Espagnole is a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard conserved at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, in Barcelona, from c. 1769.[1]
The knight, with his arrogant pose, is sitting beside a fountain in which his horse is drinking. He is dressed à l'espagnole, an expression which in eighteenth-century France was used to refer to picturesque or fancy attire, and had no bearing on the Spanish fashions of the time. In fact, dress à l'espagnole was inspired by French fashions from the time of Henry IV and Louis XIII. The picture is a work from the artist's youth, painted on a trip he made to Italy with his friend and patron Jean-Claude Richard. Fragonard was one of the last representatives of rococo painting and this work shows his most characteristic style: touches of light material known as 'virtuosity of speed'.[2]