The Wallace Collection, on Manchester Square, in central London, contains art works that were gathered in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by successive Marquesses of Hertford. The museum, occupying a Georgian mansion, opened to the public in 1900, and is particularly known for its fine eighteenth-century French paintings—among them a small and delicate work by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, which is known in English as “The Souvenir.” It shows a young woman carving an initial into a tree trunk. She is wearing a gown of pink satin, its color enhancing the blush of her cheek. At her feet lies a letter that, presumably, was written by the lover whose initial she is inscribing. She looks dreamy yet determined: the woman is caught in a reverie, but she is also making her mark.
Joanna…
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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 20, 2019