Description
This beautiful decorative plate was made in LIMOGES, France, which is famous for the making of fine porcelain. This plate is white with a fuchsia pink border & is gilded with real gold. The center features one of the scenes from a famous painting by Jean Honore' Fragonard (1732-1806). Fragonard was a French painter of the Rococo style who was popular in the latter half of the 18th Century, around the time of Marie Antoinette, Louis XV, & Louis XVI. Rococo painters featured pastoral landscapes & incorporated in their paintings myths of love, cherubs, cupids, Venus, & mythical creatures. Portraiture was very popular among the Rococo painters & featured aristocratic courting couples on leisurely outings. Although most couples appear to be innocent courting lovers, some works of the Rococo painters depict a little naughtiness in their pastoral scenes. Scenes, like the one found at the center of this plate, are commonly called Fragonard's Love Story or Fragonard's Courting Couple. Even though the French Revolution put an end to many of the careers of Rococo painters, as their aristocratic patrons could no longer support them, this was not the end of the Fragonard Love Story or Courting Couple, which has continued as a motif to this day. The first great revival of "the couple" was in the late Victorian times when they appeared on hand painted brooches & in miniature paintings. Later, during the Victorian Revival in the 1980's, the couple returned once again on brooches, china, teacups, & vases. This plate is probably from the 1980's. It measures 3-1/2" in diameter & comes with an attached gold tone metal stand. Limoges France Fragonard's Love Story 3.5" Gilded Plate with Stand
