FRENCH PAINTING

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)

The Swing, probably about 1765, oil on canvas, 2.159 x 1.855 m., Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.17.



Elegant young people amuse themselves at a fête galante (an idyllic gathering) with flirtation and games of love. They find themselves in a magical garden, an immense expanse of earth and sky that is an idealized vision of Nature, imposing yet tamed by civilization. Light plays on the towering clouds and breaks through in patches on the ground to illuminate the tiny figures as if they were on a spotlit stage. Our eye falls on a young woman swinging beneath the trees. As she waves with a flower to her companions, she kicks out a leg to reveal petticoats, ankles, and a dainty calf. To eighteenth-century audiences, the swing's rhythm and motion would have suggested erotic abandon. Looking carefully, we find that this swing is pulled by a youth barely visible in the shadows between the two lion fountains-and so we discover a romantic attachment.

Fragonard adopted the lighthearted subjects of his teacher Boucher, but painted in a freer style. Quick trills of paint create silk ruffles; spare dots of color are sufficient to convey a wealth of flowers. "Swordplay of the brush" one contemporary called it. This painting and its companion nearby, Blindman's Buff, originally formed part of a large scheme of decoration.


Images and texts are for educational, non-commercial use only.

Text written by Carla Brenner, Department of Education Publications

© Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art

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revised 1/11/95