Blind-Man’s Buff By Jean-Honore Fragonard: A Portrayal Of Intimacy And Underlying Physical Attractiveness
Jean-Honore Fragonard created his painting Blind-Man’s Buff in Europe during 1750-1752. Many of his famous paintings, including this one, convey a theme of intimacy and underlying physical attractiveness. The painting is now being displayed in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art.
Generally, Fragonard Blind-Man's Buff painting consists of two young individuals playfully enjoying a game together, exhibits a mixture of bright and dull colors including the impressive use of oil paints, and represents the sixteenth and seventeenth-century portrayal of the foolishness of marriage. To briefly describe this painting, a young couple plays a game called the Blind Man's Buff in a garden. They are both dressed in fashionable attire. The young lady dresses in an elegant pastel pink dress with white puff sleeves; the bottom of her dress symbolize petals of a flower. The young man behind the blindfolded lady is tickling her with a piece of straw as a way to express his interest and attraction towards her. The two children lying on the ground are represented as cupids. They are poking the young lady's hand with a stick due to the boredom of the game.
When analyzing the work, the Blind-Man's Buff painting applies to color. The color is for its decorative purposes, to create mood and to express and arouse the emotion in the painting. When looking at the colorful background: the blue skies, the pink flowers, and the brown trees; it symbolizes the innocence and the youthfulness of the image. When analyzing color, also look at the lighting, which is shining specifically on the blindfolded lady and her dress, making them noticeable to the eye. The painting also includes the medium. Jean-Honore Fragonard used oil on canvas for the painting. The painting was painted with pigments that are held together with a type of oil that dries when exposed to air, called drying oil. This allows the painting to be transparent and helps light to shine through it. Overall, color and medium come together to help show the full story of the image. In addition, during the 16th and 17th century in Europe, marriage was usually an arranged affair, mostly for the wealthy class. The wedding would usually take place when the couples were really young. Prior to the marriage, couples would pair up and play games to become more acquainted. The game the couple is engaging in represents the game of courtship, which is where the couple starts to develop a romantic relationship with each other. In the game, a blindfolded person, who is the lady, tries to catch another person.
The blindfold acts as a protection, protecting the young lady from the possible harsh realities of married life that are to come. During the game, the young lady can clearly see under her blindfold; which means she has full control over the situation and everything around her. Since, she can clearly see where her potential lover is, she is extending the game for the sheer enjoyment of the game itself, rather than to develop a relationship with the man. Although others have painted this story in different ways, this painting specifically portrays a gentle happiness in the characters.
Finally, the Blind-Man's Buff painting by Jean-Honore Fragonard is telling the story of a young soon to be a married couple playing a game of courtship in a park. The use of color and medium allowed for the painting to express different kinds of emotions and allow light to shine through it making the meaning of the story stand out. The importance of this painting is that Jean-Honore Fragonard portrayed the young couple in such an innocent way. While being put in a hard situation of having to choose a person to marry, the couple tries to enjoy the game without knowing about what the final outcome would be.
