Title
Orlando Furioso: Astolfo puts the dragons and lions to flight with his magic horn
1780s
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 1780s
- Media category
- Drawing
- Materials used
- black chalk and brown wash
- Dimensions
- 39.9 x 27.2 cm sheet [irreg.]
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1982
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 7.1982
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Works in the collection
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About
In the 1780s Fragonard made a series of over 100 lively drawings inspired by Ariosto’s epic, 'Orlando Furioso'. First published in 1516, the fantastic poem relates the struggles between the Christians and the pagans. Unfortunately there is no 18th-century documentation to tell us why Fragonard undertook such an ambitious project. In the 19th century the drawings belonged to the great Fragonard collector, Hippolyte Walferdin, who purchased them from the artist's family. The series was kept intact until 1922.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Old Europe: Prints & drawings from the collection 1500-1800, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 03 Jun 2006–06 Aug 2006
European prints and drawings 1500-1900, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Aug 2014–02 Nov 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
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Edmund Capon AM, OBE and Jan Meek (Editors), Portrait of a Gallery, 'Prints & Drawings', pg. 115-122, Sydney, 1984, 118.
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Elizabeth Mongan, Philip Hofer and Jean Seznec, Fragonard drawings for Ariosto, New York, circa 1945, (illus.) 76. plate 114
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