The Swing Jean Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)

Description of the painting "Swing" by Jean Honoré Fragonard

The cheerful, witty, and unfailingly affable Jean Honoré Fragonard created in the Rococo style, a genre with no claim to depth, and designed rather to decorate interiors and delight the eye.

That’s why the painting called "Happy Possibilities of a Swing" is imbued with lyricism of mood, playful eroticism, refinement of details, lightness and elegance of composition characteristic of this style.

The plot of the work, as well as everything else that the artist created, is frivolously erotic. A young beauty in a lush pastel-colored dress is swinging on a swing. The swing is swung by an older man sitting in the shade of the trees.

With each swing, the girl’s fluffy skirt flies up, exposing her legs in white stockings. At the bottom, among the azure flowers, sits the girl’s lover, who has not accidentally occupied this very favorable location. Captivated by the thrill of swinging, the girl throws up her left foot and her slipper flies off.

The thick and vibrant garden greenery sets off the coral halftones on the girl’s dress wonderfully. Bright rays of sunlight illuminate the composition, giving the entire scene a lightness and overpowering major. The young man sits surrounded by beautifully painted bright garden flowers. Illuminated by the bright glare of the sun, the stone Cupid is depicted with his finger to his lips, as if asking him not to give away the young man hiding in the thicket. Completing the scene are two plump Cupids in the arms of a dolphin.

The idea for the plot of the painting belongs to its customer, the baron, Saint-Julien, who wanted Fragonard to portray him in the most favorable place to view the girl’s legs on a swing. The idea of the slipper thrown off her foot belongs to the artist himself - this detail gives the painting some dynamism. For a long time the painting was not known to the general public because the baron did not seek to display it in public view.