Don Quixote about to Strike the Helmet c. 1780s

Editor: Here we have "Don Quixote about to Strike the Helmet," a drawing from the 1780s by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. It's very free and gestural. You can almost feel the speed of the artist's hand! There's a whimsical quality to the scene, like a half-remembered dream. What springs to your mind when you look at it? Curator: Well, it’s that looseness, that feeling of being right there with Fragonard, isn't it? Like rummaging through his mind's attic! Notice how he hasn't laboured over details? He's caught the raw energy of the moment when Don Quixote, bless his deluded heart, is about to bash something. I bet Fragonard was chuckling to himself as he drew it, weren't you? Editor: That's a fun way to look at it. Is it fair to call this a cartoon? Curator: That’s astute! It's a cartoon in the older sense of the word – a preparatory sketch for a larger work. See how the lines practically dance, almost vibrating with the potential of what might become a fully realized painting? It's like peeking behind the curtain of Fragonard's imagination. Were I able to enter this reality, I am almost sure it is just like his dreams: wild, unrestrained, but, yes, slightly unfulfilled. Editor: It does make you wonder what the painting would have looked like. Curator: Exactly! Though, maybe, just maybe, the beauty lies precisely in its unfinished quality. We’re left to fill in the blanks, adding our own dreams to Fragonard's, and thereby we achieve a form of artistic immortality ourselves. And is there more one can ask from a picture than immortality? I believe, "No"! Editor: I never considered looking at a preliminary drawing that way before. Thanks!