Following her predecessor’s lead, she also used artistic patronage towield power. In 1771, she commissioned Jean-Honoré Fragonard to painta series of panels to decorate the garden pavilion of her country retreat.It took Fragonard two years to finish The Progress of Love, a series of fourplayfully erotic scenes that recount the courtship of a young aristocraticcouple. Despite the pastoral charm of the paintings, Madame du Barrydeclared them no longer fashionable. She had moved on to neoclassicaldesign. Fragonard’s work was replaced by a series of decorative panelsby Joseph-Marie Vien that depicted Greek lovers in a sleeker and moreLúcio Carvalho, Waiting for You, 2018, oil, courtesy of Chic Evolution in Art
