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The Indiscreet Bull

ca. 1763-65
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Rustic landscapes and farmyard scenes inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch painting were popular in eighteenth-century France, and Fragonard was not immune to their charms. More often than not, he chose to animate his versions of such scenes with the amorous pursuits of young farmworkers. Here, a bull raises his head from a drinking trough to stare, as if dumbstruck, while a young woman resists the sudden advances of a shepherd.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Indiscreet Bull
  • Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1763-65
  • Medium: Brown wash over black chalk underdrawing
  • Dimensions: 9 1/8 × 6 7/8 in. (23.2 × 17.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Private collection
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints