Garden Party?

How can we have The Art of Love without Jean-Honoré Fragonard? V Day without chocolate? This c. 1773 painting is the first from his four-panel Progress of Love series, now at the Frick in New York: The Pursuit (here), The Meeting, The Lover Crowned, The Love Letters. (See, it all works out in the end….) Here the polite, well-dressed young man doffs his hat and proffers a rose under the watchful eye of (mais oui!) Cupid above. As the young lady flings out her arms, we can almost hear the silks of her dress rustling, a gasp, perhaps, escaping--but is she really upset? Or is she reaching  for him…? What do you think? Roses, roses everywhere…a fountain overflowing….Have you already found the two hearts in the trees?