Jean-Honor� Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French painter whose late manner is distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. A prolific artist, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings. The J. Paul Getty Museum's Fragonard masterpiece, <em>The Fountain of Love</em>, is part of a series of his most striking works called the Allegories of Love, exquisite paintings that convey an atmosphere of intimacy and eroticism. <br> This lavishly illustrated book compares and analyzes the compositions, iconography, and sources of the Allegories in the context of ancient r�gime pre-Romanticism. The author discusses the transcendental aspect of love in the Allegories and the concept of Romantic love and painting on the eve of the French Revolution. The book accompanies <em>Consuming Passion: Fragonard's Allegories of Love</em>, an exhibition of the artist's work that opens at the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute on October 27, 2007, and at the J. Paul Getty Museum in February 2008.