Fancy Picture/Sujet de Caprice — Defining the Genre in the Painting of the 18th Century

The current research focuses on the fancy picture (sujet de caprice), a genre common in the European painting practice of the 18th century. As a result of the historiographical analysis of the genre and the indication of its determinative stylistic features, the paper resolved the current terminological problems surrounding the fancy picture and proved its independence of the other 17th-18th centuries painting genres. On the basis of iconographic analysis the origins of the fancy picture were traced in the Dutch genre painting of the 17th century. The 18th century fancy pictures were classified and investigated in accordance with their common themes, i.e. vanitas representations of children, girls depicted in the transitional moment between childhood and adulthood, depictions of maids and images of peasants and beggars. The analysis of these themes allowed to define the social mechanisms that the fancy pictures reflect, which include the following: the 18th century focus on the personality, the rise of sentimentalism and the subsequent shift in the aristocratic perception of the third class.