What Work of Art Does the Young Mans Position in Jeanhonorãƒâ© Fragonards the Swing Reflect

Jean-Honoré Fragonard,The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas (Wallace Collection, London); speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvas, 1767 (Wallace Collection, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvas, 1767 (Wallace Collection, London)

Within a lush garden, a young woman in a billowing pink gown glides through the air. Her suspension high above the footing is enabled by a swing consisting of a crimson velvet cushioned seat and a pair of ropes tied effectually the knobby branches of an enormous tree. On the far right, an older human seated on a stone demote helps operate the device. Using a series of connected ropes, he pulls the swing back to create the momentum necessary to propel the adult female forward. As he releases the ropes, she leans back and extends her legs, expelling a tiny pinkish slipper from her pointed foot. The prissy shoe flies through the air toward a marble statue on the far left. At the base of the large pedestal supporting this sculpture lies a beau. Partially hidden past an overgrown rose bush-league, he peers broad-eyed upward the open up brim of the swinging adult female.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas (Wallace Collection, London)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas (Wallace Collection, London, photograph: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA two.0)

This oil painting known equally The Swing was created by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard sometime during 1767 and 1768. A admirer of the courtroom reportedly requested the painter stand for his mistress being pushed on a swing every bit he secretly admired her from below. While the figures in the work are not identifiable every bit portraits of specific individuals, their rich attire and leisurely activity underline their aristocratic status.

Such playful and erotic scenes were popular amongst the elite clientele Fragonard served. Unlike large-scale history paintings, or the widely collected genres of portraiture and landscape, these works were relatively pocket-sized (81 x 64.two 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 delineation of societal norms subverted for the pursuit of personal pleasure. The work'south strong appeal led to the production of a printed version by Nicolas Delaunay in 1782, which circulated amidst a broader, though still elite, audience of collectors.

Female figure (detail), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Female figure (detail), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 ten 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photograph: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Play and pleasance

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Blind-Man's Buff, 1750-52, oil on canvas, 46 x 36 inches (Toledo Museum of Art)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Blind-Man's Vitrify , 1750-52, oil on canvas, 46 ten 36 inches ( Toledo Museum of Art )

Swinging was one of several outdoor leisure activities common amongst elites in eighteenth-century France. Artists captured these popular games and pastimes in numerous works of fine art created for private patrons, such equally ii of Fragonard'southward earlier paintings: Blind Human's Bluff and The Come across-Saw . The See-Saw's portrayal of a immature woman gleefully raising her arms and legs as she is suspended in mid-air is a clear precedent for the pose of the main figure in The Swing . Both women recline dorsum as they elevator their artillery nearly above their heads and kick one leg upwardly, revealing the expanse below their skirts. Eighteenth-century audiences would have considered this uninhibited behavior quite indecent under ordinary circumstances. However, inside the context of leisure activities, the menses's established rules of social etiquette were oftentimes bent.

Intimate garden-parks like the i depicted in The Swing were common sites for aristocratic leisure. These outdoor spaces were viewed as less formal than domestic interiors. Situated on the grounds of individual country estates and pleasure pavilions, garden-parks provided a retreat from the strict regulations of elite lodge. Here, French nobles could mode themselves equally carefree shepherds or milkmaids, a function-playing game alluded to by the swinging woman's harbinger hat. In improver, the hidden alcoves and clandestine 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 correct suggest efforts to dispense nature, the overgrown plants and abandoned rake in the foreground underline that the will of nature—like that of love—can never exist fully constrained.

Female figure (detail), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Female person figure (detail), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photograph: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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 brim to reveal her curved right dogie 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 human 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 equally they reach with the opposite mitt to remove an pointer from their quivers. By showing the god facing the swinging woman as he makes this silencing gesture, Fragonard positions the 2 as confidants sharing a secret.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Young homo leaning confronting the statue's pedestal (item), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA two.0)

The discipline of their deception is quickly discovered hiding in the rose bushes below. Hither, a beau 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 pinkish roses on the bush-league below, a visual connection that suggests her fertility rivals that of the garden itself.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.2 cm (Wallace Collection, London; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Older human (detail), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, oil on canvas, 81 10 64.ii cm (Wallace Collection, London; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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 homo operating the swing is presumably the hubby of the young woman. His grin expression as he gazes at his wife suggests that he is blissfully unaware of her hidden lover. A serial of looks and gestures connects the three figures, creating an inverted Five-shape that visually reinforces their private roles in this dearest triangle. The ropes the husband uses to pull his wife toward him resemble a prepare of reigns and are evocative of both the bonds of union and the restrictions placed on female person 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 anxiety seems to sound the alarm on the adult female'due south bawdy behavior. Contrasting with Cupid every bit hugger-mugger-keeper, the barking dog threatens to expose the infidelity of its mistress.

The Rococo's visual games

While works like The Swing would exist critiqued as symbols of the moral disuse of aristocratic culture, they were immensely popular during the eighteenth century. The appeal of these objects often categorized as Rococo fine art rested not only in their styles or subjects, which were exceptionally diverse, just also in their power to engross viewers in visual games that comment on the nature of both fine art and humanity. The Swing draws united states of america in through a mixture of visual sense of humour, double entendre, and loaded symbols that reward close looking. Like the woman swinging back-and-along, our attention is swiftly drawn between the many rich details sprinkled across the painted sail. As our eyes move from i element to the next, we discover charged symbols like the abased rake or yapping dog and recognize familiar characters such every bit Cupid or the dancing maenads . We likewise 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 united states with mental exhilaration meant to rival the concrete thrill of riders on a swing. Like swingers flight through the air while tethered to a stable object, nosotros are simultaneously gratis and supported as we explore the artist's carefully constructed canvas.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvas, 1767 (Wallace Collection, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvass, 1767 (Wallace Collection, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Boosted resource:

Wallace Collection The Swing Object Folio

Wallace Collection The Swing Video

Jennifer Milam, Fragonard's Playful Paintings: Visual Games in Rococo Art (Manchester, U.k.: Manchester University Press, 2006).

Vanessa Bezemer Sellers, "From Italy to France: Gardens in the Courtroom of Louis Fourteen and Subsequently" on Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, 2000).

Marry Sheriff, Fragonard: Art and Eroticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).

Perrin Stein, "Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)" on Heilbrunn Timeline of Fine art History (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000).