The Swing (1767)

Description

Name: The Swing (L'Escarpolette) (1767)

Artist: Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)

Medium: Oil painting on canvas

Genre: Genre painting

Movement: Rococo art

Location: Wallace Collection, London

Background
During the mid-1760s, revitalizing the idiom pioneered by Jean-Antoine Watteau, Fragonard
began to specialize in the playful, erotic compositions for which he is now most famous. His
delicate 18th century colour palette, witty content and fast brushwork gave even his most
voyeuristic canvases a wonderful atmosphere of gaiety and joyfulness.

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. At first glance, the
picture appears to be a simple image of an innocent young woman at play, but then it becomes
clear that the picture is deliberately risque and rather rascally. Because as the lady rides higher
and higher on the swing, she allows her admirer to see up her dress - and even kicks her legs
apart for his benefit. As she does so, she sends one of her shoes soaring towards a winged figure
that could easily represent Cupid, the Roman god of desire and erotic love.

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.

The joyful exuberance of the painting is accentuated by the way that the frills of the girl's dress
match the pattern of the surrounding foliage, as well as by its glowing pastel colours and soft
lighting. This erotic snapshot - this masterpiece of Rococo art, commemorating the spirit of
aesthetic refinement and aristocratic decadence on the eve of the French Revolution - shows
that in the area of titillation, Fragonard is simply incomparable.
This oil painting known as The Swing was created by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard
sometime during 1767 and 1768. A gentleman of the court reportedly requested the painter
represent his mistress being pushed on a swing as he secretly admired her from below. While
the figures in the work are not identifiable as portraits of specific individuals, their rich attire and
leisurely activity underline their aristocratic status.

Such playful and erotic scenes were popular among the elite clientele Fragonard served. Unlike
large-scale history paintings, or the widely collected genres of portraiture and landscape, these
works were relatively small (81 x 64.2 cm in the case of The Swing) and intended for display in
intimate rooms known as cabinets. Admiring the painting in the privacy of such a space, the
patron and his inner circle would have appreciated its depiction of societal norms subverted for
the pursuit of personal pleasure. The work’s strong appeal led to the production of a printed
version by Nicolas Delaunay in 1782, which circulated among a broader, though still elite,
audience of collectors.

Swinging was one of several outdoor leisure activities common among elites in eighteenth-
century France. Artists captured these popular games and pastimes in numerous works of art
created for private patrons, Eighteenth-century audiences would have considered this
uninhibited behavior quite indecent under ordinary circumstances. However, within the context
of leisure activities, the period’s established rules of social etiquette were often bent.

Intimate garden-parks like the one depicted in The Swing were common sites for aristocratic
leisure. garden-parks provided a retreat from the strict regulations of elite society. Here, French
nobles could fashion themselves as carefree shepherds or milkmaids, a role-playing game
alluded to by the swinging woman’s straw hat. In addition, the hidden alcoves and secret
corners within these asymmetrical gardens enabled men and women to mingle more freely and
couples to sneak away unchaperoned. By juxtaposing various natural and man-made elements,
Fragonard emphasizes the freedoms and restrictions French elites simultaneously experienced
when playing in these spaces. While the fountains and trelliswork on the right suggest efforts to
manipulate nature, the overgrown plants and abandoned rake in the foreground underline that
the will of nature—like that of love—can never be fully constrained.

Eroticism

The left side of The Swing includes multiple references to untamed desire. Clearest among these
is the swinging woman’s raised left leg, which lifts the hem of her skirt to reveal her curved right
calf clad with a white stocking and pink garter. This flirtatious act signals her rejection of the
traditional constraints of female modesty.
The heeled slipper that flies off her pointed foot leads our eyes to a marble statue of Cupid (the
mythological god of erotic love) on the far left. Fragonard based this object on a well-known
sculpture created by Etienne-Maurice Falconet in 1755 for King Louis XV’s former mistress,
Madame de Pompadour. Both the painted and sculpted Cupid bring the index finger of one
hand to their lips as they reach with the opposite hand to remove an arrow from their quivers.
By showing the god facing the swinging woman as he makes this silencing gesture, Fragonard
positions the two as confidants sharing a secret.

The subject of their deception is quickly discovered hiding in the rose bushes below. Here, a
young man leans against the statue’s pedestal carved with images of dancing maenads. A
seeming victim of the infatuation caused by Cupid’s arrow, his wide-eyed gaze and extended left
arm turn our attention to the exposed legs of the woman. The layers of her skirt open like the
petals of the blooming pink roses on the bush below, a visual connection that suggests her
fertility rivals that of the garden itself.

These references to unbridled passion are balanced by symbols of constraint on the right side of
the composition. Beside the garden’s trellis and fountain, the older man operating the swing is
presumably the husband of the young woman. His smiling expression as he gazes at his wife
suggests that he is blissfully unaware of her hidden lover. A series of looks and gestures
connects the three figures, creating an inverted V-shape that visually reinforces their individual
roles in this love triangle. The ropes the husband uses to pull his wife toward him resemble a set
of reigns and are evocative of both the bonds of marriage and the restrictions placed on female
sexuality during the period. The act of taming is further recalled by an adjacent sculpture of two
putti riding a dolphin. While the winged bodies of these figures echo that of Cupid on the far
left, the putto gazing at the swinging woman adopts a concerned rather than conspiratorial
expression. Likewise, the yapping white dog (a common symbol of fidelity) at the husband’s feet
seems to sound the alarm on the woman’s bawdy behavior. Contrasting with Cupid as secret-
keeper, the barking dog threatens to expose the infidelity of its mistress.

The Rococo’s visual games

While works like The Swing would be critiqued as symbols of the moral decay of aristocratic
culture, they were immensely popular during the eighteenth century. The appeal of these
objects often categorized as Rococo art rested not only in their styles or subjects, which were
exceptionally diverse, but also in their ability to engross viewers in visual games that comment
on the nature of both art and humanity. The Swing draws us in through a mixture of visual
humor, double entendre, and loaded symbols that reward close looking. Like the woman
swinging back-and-forth, our attention is swiftly drawn between the many rich details sprinkled
across the painted canvas. As our eyes move from one element to the next, we discover charged
symbols like the abandoned rake or yapping dog and recognize familiar characters such as Cupid
or the dancing maenads. We also uncover intriguing connections between the swinging woman
and Venus (a companion of Cupid), Madame de Pompadour (patron of Falconet’s sculpture), or
a blooming flower (like the pink rose adorning her lover’s jacket). These discoveries provide us
with mental exhilaration meant to rival the physical thrill of riders on a swing. Like swingers
flying through the air while tethered to a stable object, we are simultaneously free and
supported as we explore the artist’s carefully constructed canvas.