Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/File:Fragonard, The Reader.jpg

A Young Girl Reading

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 7 Jul 2014 at 09:27:16 (UTC)

Original – The painting is characterized by the Rococo's intimate scale and a rich, intense and deep color.

Reason: Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter, whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance and hedonism. His paintings were meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance. He used more lighthearted, playful and witty themes but also tension, exuberance, and intricate designs in his paintings - an intimate scale, rather than the imposing Baroque presenting it. Among his most popular works are genre paintings conveying an atmosphere of intimacy.

Articles in which this image appears: A Young Girl Reading, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and more.
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Paintings
Creator: Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Support as nominator – Hafspajen (talk) 09:27, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support - a major influence on Mary Cassatt, whose 1879 Woman Reading and On the Balcony both evidently influenced by Fragonard. But what is most interesting about Cassat's paintings is their modernity, not only in her treatment, but (as Griselda Pollock and Judith Barter point out) in the subject, because whereas Fragonard depicts his subject reading a novel, Cassat has hers reading a newspaper. And then of course there's Edouard Manet's celebrated 1879 Reading where not only do we have a woman reading a newspaper, but reading it in a café and with a glass of beer at hand to boot! Coat of Many Colours (talk) 12:28, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Question - Does the original have such prominent blue streaks on the face? I'm already ready to support, but I do find those odd. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:12, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, well spotted and a good point. It's the museum's image, so that should be safe. But in any case these kind of blue and pink highlights are the Rococo style, copied by Mary Cassatt. Incidentally, I see the NGA zoom facility offers considerably more resolution than what Commons offers. I'll see if I can get that and upload it as a new version. Coat of Many Colours (talk) 13:25, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
There are tools available to stitch those tiles together (as I did for File:Raden Saleh.jpg, from the Rijksmuseum), but the downloading takes forever! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:51, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
NGA download allows up to 3,000 pixels long edge, which is what Commons provides. Don't know any scripts that will stitch NGA tiles. That Raden Saleh image is beautiful. Coat of Many Colours (talk) 15:02, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'll check. Hafspajen (talk) 13:31, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think that it is correct, but I am not 100 % sure HOW proeminent they are. But the blue lights (or shadows) are there on almost all reproductions. This tells us citation: He painted these very quickly—in an hour, according to friends—using bold, energetic strokes. ... Fragonard explored the point at which a simple trace of paint becomes a recognizable form, dissolving academic distinctions between a sketch and finished painting. Interesting, using blue complementary colours as shadows like this. This will generally come much later - Monet was a great master of this. But it is not a general Rococo style, no, it is something that Fragonard uses - my guess would be - might have learned from Rubens (1577–1640), who was among the first to use this kind of fast, flowing brush technique, like here-> File:Peter Paul Rubens and workshop 001 colour version 01.jpg and Fragonard (1732-1806) was born around hundred years after Rubens died. Hafspajen (talk) 14:08, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Support - Okay Hafs and Coat, thanks for the explanation. This looks quite good, I think. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:32, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Comment This painting is actually mentioned as an example of ultra-high resolution at this NGA page here. Someone nerdier than me might be able to stitch the tiles on the basis of the info there? Coat of Many Colours (talk)

It actually looks the same, the surface - it looks like in this picture. Hafspajen (talk) 23:04, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well yes, but it would still be nice to have it at the mark. Coat of Many Colours (talk) 23:54, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Support: The cool grey on the face is consistently used in the shadows in other parts of the painting. Amandajm (talk) 08:55, 28 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Amandajm, you remember any other painter from art history from this timeperiod, using shadows and brushwork like this? Hafspajen (talk) 11:51, 28 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Support Beautiful, beautiful painting! CorinneSD (talk) 23:53, 28 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Very sharp and a quality reproduction. Ðiliff «» (Talk) 12:54, 30 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support -- Colin°^Talk 11:41, 3 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support Yann (talk) 07:54, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Fragonard, The Reader.jpg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 09:46, 7 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]