The Infamous Mistress Who Rejected A Masterpiece

This piece is called The Meeting and it’s part of a 4 painting series titled The Progress of Love by Jean Honore Fragonard. Fragonard created these pieces at the height of his career for a woman named Madame du Barry, the official mistress to King Louis XV. But when she finally received the finished paintings, she rejected them. And for Fragonard, this wasn’t any old setback. This was the beginning of the end. His final love letter to a world that ghosted him.

Fragonard was one of the most sought-after painters among the wealthy elite. And while he was working for some private clients in Paris, he caught the eye of a woman named Madame du Barry. In 1771, she commissioned Fragonard to paint The Progress of Love. It was the biggest commission of his career—and he spent a full year perfecting it.

But here’s the kicker, once Fragonard finished the series and delivered them, Madame du Barry decided she didn’t want them and she refused to pay him.

There are a few theories why she did this. For one, the pavilion was classical in style. Perhaps Fragonard’s Rococo style didn’t match her aesthetic. But if that were the case, why did she agree to commission him in the first place?

Another theory is that the man in the paintings looked a little too much like a young King Louis XV and the woman looked suspiciously similar to Madame du Barry.

But it seems odd that Madame du Barry would take issue with being portrayed as the king's lover. After all, it wasn’t a secret that she was his favorite.

I haven’t seen anyone else mention this, but to me, the woman in the paintings looks way more like Madame de Pompadour, the king’s previous mistress, than Madame du Barry.
And honestly? That wouldn’t be out of character for Fragonard who was known to slip cheeky little digs into his work—even when it came to his clients.
But this theory is a stretch too. Maybe Madame du Barry didn’t think the king would appreciate being portrayed as a blubbering lover boy.

Whatever the reason, she passed on Fragonard’s work and instead hired a different artist to create a new series that was basically the same in theme, but neoclassical in style and a lot less fun.

Fragonard didn’t take this rejection lightly. This was the biggest commission of his career that he spent nearly a year working on.

He brought them back to his studio, tucked them away… And they stayed there. For twenty years.

After Madame du Barry’s devastating rejection of his work, Fragonard went to Italy to get away for a while. He returned to Paris, but left again in 1790 for his hometown of Grasse.
There, he installed the Progress of Love paintings into a salon in the home of his cousin. But the room was much larger than the original space at Madame du Barry’s pleasure pavilion, so Fragonard expanded the series, adding 10 more canvases to fill up the space.
The second part of Fragonard’s life was much quieter. He still got the occasional private commission from a few loyal patrons. But as the 18th century wrapped up, so did Fragonard’s career.

At the end of the day, Madame du Barry and Fragonard had a lot in common. They both came from nothing and played by their own rules to climb the social ranks. But when the mood shifted from “let them eat cake” to “off with their heads” nobody, not even their rich and powerful friends couldn’t protect them from the fallout. Although Madame du Barry’s descent was much more dramatic while Fragonard’s was more of a slow burn. I understand why Fragonard fell out of favor, but I still love his paintings. To me, they feel like stepping into another world. Thank you for watching!

References:
Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Meeting," in Smarthistory, December 4, 2015, accessed June 15, 2025, https://smarthistory.org/jean-honore-fragonard-the-progress-of-love-the-meeting/.
https://www.frick.org/blogs/curatorial/mapping_provenance_fragonards_progress_love
https://www.frick.org/interact/jean-honoré_fragonard_progress_love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WluWUnlEn7M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owo5onklBGE
Habanera by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100656
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100783
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Divertissement by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100256
Artist: http://incompetech.com/