Blindman's Bluff
Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732-1806)
Date: c. 1775-1780
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States
Description
From a distance, we look slightly down into a lush park filled pairs and groups of elegantly dressed, light-skinned adults and children frolicking and socializing in this vertical painting. The color palette is dominated by celery and olive green and tawny, soft brown. An aquamarine-blue sky filled with towering white clouds and soaring trees fills the upper three-quarters of this painting. People gather in small groups around a fountain to our left, a balustraded terrace at the center, and a dining table enclosed by tall trellises to our right. On the terrace, a blindfolded woman in a butter-yellow gown stretches out her arms over several people leaning away from her. The people in this game with her and the others wear suits and dresses in warm crimson red, rose pink, goldenrod yellow, baby blue, or teal. The women’s long dresses have ruffled sleeves that come to their elbows. The men wear jackets over cream-white shirts, and some wear white stockings with knee-length britches. The base of the fountain to our left is carved with statues around the base. A jet of water sprays up from a shallow bowl above. Atop the tall terrace surrounding the dining table, a statue of a woman wearing a helmet looks down to our left in profile. Water cascades in a waterfall on the far side of the terrace below, presumably from a second, unseen fountain.
