Yunnan University

School of Architecture and Planning.

Dept. of Civil Engineering.
Chinese Arts & Crafts Appreciation.

MD JAHIDUL ISLAM
St. ID 20183290356
 The Swing
(The Happy Accident of The Swing)

Artist: Jean-Honoré Fragonard

The Swing depicts a young man - concealed in the foliage - who is watching a young woman on
a swing. (At the time, a swing was a conventional symbol for infidelity.) She is being pushed by
an elderly man in the background who has no idea of the young man's presence.
Introduction
The Swing (French: L'Escarpolette), also known as The Happy Accidents of the Swing
(French: Les Hasards heureux de L'escarpolette, the original title), is an 18th-century
oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in the Wallace Collection in London. It is
considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Rococo era, and is Fragonard's best-
known work.

Artist’s Bio
Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo
manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of
the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard
produced more than 550 paintings, of which only five are dated.

Born: April 5, 1732, Grasse, France

Died: August 22, 1806, Paris, France
Period: Rococo
Spouse: Marie-Anne Fragonard (m. 1769–1806)
Children: Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard
Parents: Françoise Petit, François Fragonard

Description

Artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Year c. 1767
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 81 cm × 64.2 cm (31+7⁄8 in × 25+1⁄4 in)
Location Wallace Collection, London, United Kingdom

The Painting portrays an elegantly dressed young lady on a swing. A grinning young
fellow, concealing in the brambles beneath and to one side, focuses towards her
surging dress humbly. A grinning more seasoned man, who is almost concealed in the
shadows on the right, drives the swing with a couple of ropes, as little white canine
barks close by. The woman is wearing a bergère cap (shepherdess cap), as she throws
her shoe with an outstretched left foot. Two sculptures are available, one of a putto,
who watches from over the young fellow on the left with its finger before its lips, the
other of two putti is on the right next to the more established man.
As indicated by the journals of the screenwriter Charles Collé, a retainer (homme de la
cour) first requested that Gabriel François Doyen make this work of art of him and his
fancy woman. Not happy with this trivial work, Doyen declined and gave the
commission to Fragonard. The man had mentioned a representation of his fancy
woman situated on a swing being moved by a diocesan, however Fragonard painted a
layman.
Other instances of symbolism are also worth noting. In the foreground (right), a tiny
lapdog - a symbol of faithfulness - sounds the alarm by barking, but the woman's
husband takes no notice. On the left, Cupid raises a finger to his lips to prevent the
two Venus-putti beneath the swing from giving the game away, while the
outstretched left arm of the young man (the Baron) has an obvious, phallic
significance.
This style of "frivolous" painting before long turned into the objective of the logicians
of the Enlightenment, who requested a more genuine craftsmanship which would
show the respectability of man.

Theme of The Swing

Rococo, less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and
theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry,
scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors, sculpted molding, and trompe-l'œil
frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama.

Display

The Swing (centre), as displayed at the Wallace Collection, London.

Copy of The Swing from Musée Lambinet, Versailles:

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