Jean-Honoré Fragonard French, 1732 - 1806 A Game of Horse and Rider, 1767/1773 oil on canvas, 115 x 87.5 cm (45 3/8 x 34 1/2 in.) Samuel H. Kress Collection 1946.7.5

From the Tour: 18th-Century France -- Boucher and Fragonard
Object 3 of 8

Boys are shown romping at the edge of a forest park in a game of horse and rider, their disheveled exuberance in contrast to the rather prim couple nearby. These boys benefit from a new attitude toward childhood, influenced by Rousseau, who argued that children should be left to follow their natural instincts. In A Game of Hot Cockles, also in the National Gallery of Art, young men and women amuse themselves in a garden. The youth who is "it" kneels and extends a hand behind him for other players to slap while he guesses their identities. The game is a form of flirtation. The players touch and tease each other, and the youth who is "it" hides his face in the lap of a young lady. And while the rough boys are framed by nature -- beeches and a craggy tree -- this courting scene is framed by art. Eighteenth-century viewers would have recognized the garden sculpture on the right as Falconet's Cupid the Admonisher.

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