 | Le Verrou |


| Date : approx. between 1777 and 1778
Sizes : 33 cm x 26 cm Material : Oil on canvas Acquisition : On loan from a private collection
| Item 10 on 24 French Painting Painting
Area related France
| |  | |
 | Description |  |
The title refers to the bolt being pushed home by the man to prevent his female companion's escape. Using a limited range of colors, expressive spontaneous brushwork and a minimum of details - an overturned chair, a fallen fan, an inviting pillow placed before gaping curtains - Fragonard has created a moment of explosive drama.
The painting is a preliminary sketch for a larger picture on canvas and with the same title in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The Louvre painting is of around 1778, and derives its title from that of the engraving made after it in 1784. The panel on loan to the National Gallery probably just precedes the Louvre canvas. | More pictures |  |
| Item(s) related |  |
| |
| |
|