François I Brandishing a Sword (c. 1815–30): Art, History and Details

François I Brandishing a Sword (c. 1815–30) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard (French, 1781–1850).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard developed a dramatic, narrative style of drawing that was well suited for illustration, and this sheet may have been one such design. Like many of his contemporaries, Fragonard was interested in modern history, focusing on important figures of the recent past. Here, he likely depicted the French king François I (1494–1547), a frequent subject of his work.

Object facts

• Title: François I Brandishing a Sword
• Date: c. 1815–30
• Creator attribution: Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard (French, 1781–1850)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash with graphite underdrawing and white and yellow gouache heightening on wove paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 16.9 x 12.2 cm (6 5/8 x 4 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2019.254

A detail from the museum

Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard was the son of the famous painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, but developed a very different artistic style than his father.

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.