Boucher met Fragonard and sent him to study with Chardin, before being persuaded to take the 18-year-old on himself as pupil and assistant; Boucher was both a stylistic and a professional influence. David (who as a young artist had been influenced by Fragonard) was a friend and neighbour at the Louvre, where they shared a basement studio; it was his post-Revolutionary clout that led to Fragonard’s role in managing the state’s new collection of art taken from the church and aristocracy. Greuze grumbled to Fragonard how after 50 years’ work he had nothing: Fragonard himself died in relative obscurity.