ALEXANDRE - EVARISTE FRAGONARD
Grasse 1780 - Paris 1850

The Recalling Of Childeric

Oil On Canvas: 35 x 27 cm (14.58 x 11.25 in)

Signed (lower right): fragonard

While many of the “troubadour” painters focused on the late medieval and renaissance periods of French history, A.-E. Fragonard treated a very broad range of historical subject matter - from recent Revolutionary events to as far back as the earliest middle ages. He might have known this tale of Childeric I (c.436-c.481), one of the first Merovingians and king of Tournai, from Gregory of Tours' famous History of the Franks or from its retelling by Montfaucon.

In keeping with the nineteenth century's taste for anecdotal history, Fragonard characteristically chose a subject that not only had political significance, but also an amorous element. Childeric's great love of women was perceived by the French as a threat to their chastity and they resolved to kill him. Learning of this Childeric fled to Thuringia, leaving behind a friend, Viomade, who vowed to turn opinion to his favor. They divided a piece of gold between them and agreed that when conditions were favorable for Childeric's return Viomade would send his half of the gold piece. Childeric was most hospitably received by the King of Thuringia and his wife Queen Basina and he remained in exile there for eight years. The painting depicts the moment when the messenger of Viomade arrives with the piece of gold. Childeric is torn between his desire to remain with Basina, with whom he has fallen in love, and his call to return to reclaim his throne. Childeric returned to France and shortly thereafter Basina joined him and became his wife. Their son Clovis became a powerful Frankish ruler who defeated the last Roman ruler in Gaul.

Despite the seeming obscurity of this story the controversy between the Frankish or Gallic heritage of the French nation had currency in the nineteenth century. The Franks had been considered by French historians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries an aristocratic race with a sense of honor and virtue. Revolutionaries of the late eighteenth century, however, preferred to identify with the Gauls. This racial conflict was still considered pertinent in explaining the consitutional conflicts of the Restoration period when the monetary power was in the hands of the descendents of the Gauls while the government remained that of the Franks.

Childeric's tomb had been discovered in the 17th century, but it gave very little visual evidence of the period, aside from a crudely rendered portrait of the long-haired king on a coin. The scant knowledge of the art and architecture of this period is quite evident from Fragonard's picture , but Fragonard, unlike the "troubadour" was concerned more with the narrative expression of a picture than with specifics of period detail.