Over the course of 1778, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and his young student (and sister-in-law) Marguerite Gérard created a group of nine etchings. Fragonard probably made The Tax Collectors first as a teaching model for Gérard. His extraordinary range of mark making demonstrates the visual effects produced by lines of different sizes, shapes, and patterns, not to mention the possibilities offered by leaving passages of white paper in reserve.