As our patron, you’ll become a member and join us in our effort to support the arts. Just enter your e-mail, and we'll let you know when there are interesting art history stories to read. It is believed that one of the men in the painting was the husband of the female on the Swing, whilst the other was someone with whom she was having an affair.

Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard. We’re also on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Flipboard.

There is a small dog shown barking in the lower right hand corner, in front of the older man. Money, power, and sex were the three most basic desires of 18th century France. All Rights Reserved. It's immediate visual impact made it an obvious choice for inclusion. The dog, which is traditionally a motif of faithfulness, barks in the direction of the lady's flirtations to give warning, but the old husband doesn't hear. These people are the idle rich. The Baron was very clear in his salacious intentions, specifically asking that in the painting his mistress was pushed on a swing by a bishop, while he (the Baron) looked up his mistress's dress. It was possibly later owned by the marquis des Razins de Saint-Marc, and certainly by the duc de Morny. All of these possibilities are evident in the painting. Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard. Mixed media drawings are fused together with ink, mica, graphite, clay, pigments, etc.... What does Autumn mean to you? In... Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, demonstrates how differently we can all view the same object. A smiling young man, hiding in the bushes on the left, watches her from a vantage point that allows him to see up into her billowing dress, where his arm is pointed with hat in hand. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvas, 1767 (Wallace Collection, London) Fragonard’s The Swing. The Swing is the central focus of this painting, as a young lady relaxes on it amongst an attractive brackdrop which gives the painting a mystical finish.

The gentleman in the lower left is young and virile.

As the young lady swings high, she throws her left leg up, allowing her dainty shoe to fly through the air. Two statues are present, one of a putto, who watches from above the young man on the left with its finger in front of its lips in a sign of silence, the other of pair of putti, who watch from beside the older man, on the right. For the casual viewer, The Swing may appear to be a scene of love at first sight; but, understanding the provocative symbolism layered in the painting provides a whole new perspective on the decadent world created by painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard.The artist completed L'Escarpolette (The Swing) in 1767 for the Baron de Saint-Julien, who wanted a flirtatious portrait of his mistress. Clearly Fragonard had no qualms in fulfilling the Baron's bawdy requests as one glance at The Swing shows that the painting is bursting with incomparable glee and rapture.

There are two notable copies, neither by Fragonard.

At the center of the work, a young woman clothed in a billowing, ruffled, ballet-pink dress floats in a dramatically lit clearing, rocking above the ground on a crimson-cushioned swing.

Doyen, of the opinion that the painting was frivolous, refused the commission and passed it on to Fragonard. A smiling young man, hiding in the bushes on the left, watches her from a vantage point that allows him to see up into her billowing dress, where his arm is pointed with hat in hand. An icon of the Rococo art movement, this masterpiece stars a coquettish leading lady flying between two besotted gentlemen on a swing, against the backdrop of a lush, fantastical garden. Fragonard’s paintings are consistently high quality work. Other symbolism to look at in The Swing is the small dog in the right foreground. Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening. A smiling older man, who is nearly hidden in the shadows on the right, propels the swing with a pair of ropes.

Find more prominent pieces of genre painting at Wikiart.org – best visual art database.

This painting has influences many later works, from paintings to sculptures, the most recent being the animated feature film Tangled, created in the style of the painting.

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. The Rococo age was a time of self-indulgence, where greed was good, and more was better.