Mosca cieca

This is a garden game frozen at the ripe moment. A blindfolded player gropes forward while the others scatter and tease, all set in one of the leafy, half-wild parks Fragonard loved to paint under Louis XV. It was made as one half of a pair. Its companion, The See-Saw, now hangs in Madrid, and the two were designed so their architecture and greenery line up into a single wide scene when shown side by side. Fragonard was still working close to his teacher François Boucher here, in the light, flirtatious Rococo manner that was going out of fashion by the time the century turned. The catalogue date for this canvas is uncertain and may be wrong, so it is being sent for review.