The Stolen Kiss (Fragonard)

The Stolen Kiss
fr: Le Baiser à la dérobée
Artist	Jean-Honoré Fragonard and/or Marguerite Gérard See § Attribution
Year	1787
Catalogue	GW 523; C 383
Medium	Oil on canvas[1]
Dimensions	45 cm × 55 cm (18 in × 22 in)[1]
Location	Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

The Stolen Kiss is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1787, located in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.^[2] It has been historically attributed to the French Rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). At 45 by 55 centimetres (18 in × 22 in), the painting is a genre scene influenced by Dutch Golden Age painting, depicting a young couple in a secretive romance, set in the foreground – a subject that was favoured before the French Revolution among French aristocrats.^[1]

In the late 18th century, The Stolen Kiss belonged to Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last monarch of the first Rzechpospolita, and was hosted in the Lazienki Palace in Warsaw. With the acquisition of the palace in the early 19th century by Tsar Alexander I, the painting effectively became part of the Russian imperial collections. It was transferred in 1895 to the Hermitage Museum, where it remains.

The traditional attribution of The Stolen Kiss to Fragonard is based on a mention of him as the author, with an etching of the painting published in 1788. However, it has been noted that the style of the painting, though close to Fragonard's works such as The Bolt, is more characteristic of the artist's sister-in-law and apprentice, Marguerite Gérard; because of that, some scholars consider the painting to be either a collaboration of Gérard and Fragonard, or solely a Gérard work.