No artist better represented the extravagant frivolity of the Parisian demimonde at the end of the eighteenth century than Fragonard. Artist in the Studio is a stunning example of Fragonard's draftsmanship and versatility, yet its subject matter differs from the artist's usual preference for park scenes, mythological stories, and upper-class flirtations. In a cluttered studio containing a globe, pictures, and bulging portfolios, Fragonard pauses from his drawing to converse with a woman, likely his wife, Marie Anne Gérard. In their slightly awkward poses, the artist has movingly conveyed a scene of unselfconscious domestic tranquility and intimacy. That the work is a self-portrait is confirmed by similarities of the man's features and expression with those of another self-portrait drawing in the Hinzelin Collection, and by the fact that the artist is drawing with his left hand. With its humble subject, economy of means, and warmth of human feeling, the drawing reveals Fragonard's debt to Rembrandt, whose art he admired and occasionally copied. Candid and unadorned, the drawing is an unexpected revelation of self for an artist best known for his artifice.