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The Swing (Fragonard)

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The Swing
ArtistJean-Honoré Fragonard
YearAbout 1767–8
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions81 cm × 64.2 cm (31+7⁄8 in × 25+1⁄4 in)
LocationThe Wallace Collection, London, United Kingdom

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. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Rococo era, and is Fragonard's best-known work.[1]

Description

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The painting depicts an elegantly dressed young woman on a swing. A smiling young man, hiding in the bushes below and to the left, points towards her billowing dress with hat in hand. A smiling older man, who is nearly hidden in the shadows on the right, propels the swing with a pair of ropes, as a small white dog barks nearby. The lady is wearing a bergère hat (shepherdess hat), as she flings her shoe with an outstretched left foot. 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, the other of two putti is on the right beside the older man.

According to the memoirs of the dramatist Charles Collé,[2] a courtier (homme de la cour)[3] first asked Gabriel François Doyen to make this painting of him and his mistress. Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard.[2] The man had requested a portrait of his mistress seated on a swing being pushed by a bishop, but Fragonard painted a layman.

This style of "frivolous" painting soon became the target of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, who demanded a more serious art which would show the nobility of man.[4]

A dedicated digital resource provided by the museum reveals more about what the conservation process revealed, the key themes of the painting and its resonance in contemporary culture.[5]

Provenance

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The original ownership is uncertain. A firm provenance begins only with the tax farmer Marie-François Ménage de Pressigny, who was guillotined in 1794,[6] after which it was seized by the revolutionary government. It was possibly later owned by the marquis des Razins de Saint-Marc, and certainly by the duc de Morny. After his death in 1865, it was bought at auction in Paris by Lord Hertford, the main founder of the Wallace Collection.[7]

Conservation

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Between August and November 2021, The Swing underwent sensitive conservation at the Wallace Collection in an effort to reverse the natural aging process, which had diminished the painting's appearance. Because of its importance, the painting is rarely off public display, and it had not been cleaned for over 100 years. As a result, the paint surface had become obscured by severely yellowed varnish, while old retouching had become visible.[8]

Notable copies

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There are two notable copies, neither by Fragonard.

Copy of The Swing from Musée Lambinet, Versailles

Notable derived works

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  • 1782: Les Hazards Heureux de l'Escarpolettes, etching and engraving by fr:Nicolas de Launay (1739–1792), 62.3 × 45.5 cm (24+5⁄8 × 17+7⁄8 in).[12] Contrary to the original painting, the lady is facing right and has plumes on her hat (among other dissimilarities) because it was drawn after the replica owned by Edmond de Rothschild.
  • 1920: The poem "Portrait of a Lady" by William Carlos Williams is believed to reference Fragonard's work and this painting in particular.[13]
  • 1972: The Little Feat album Sailin' Shoes features front cover artwork by Neon Park that alludes to Fragonard's work.[14]
  • 1999: The first act of the ballet Contact: The Musical by Susan Stroman and John Weidman is described as a "contact improvisation" on the painting.[15]
  • 2001: The Swing (after Fragonard) is a headless lifesize recreation of Fragonard's model clothed in African fabric, by Yinka Shonibare[16]
  • 2013: The animated Disney film Frozen displays a version of The Swing in a scene when lead character Anna dances through an art gallery singing "For the First Time in Forever."[17]
  • 2022: The promotional poster for season three of the HBO Max show Harley Quinn uses a version of The Swing with Harley Quinn and Ivy on the swing while other characters from the show can be seen in the background.[18]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Ingamells, 164
  2. ^ a b Collé, Charles (1868). Journal et mémoires de Charles Collé sur les hommes de lettres, les ouvrages dramatiques et les événements les plus mémorables du règne de Louis XV (1748-1772). Vol. III. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Fils et Cie. pp. 165–166.
  3. ^ Although his identity was not unveiled by Collé, it has been thought that it was Marie-François-David Bollioud de Saint-Julien, baron of Argental (1713–1788), best known as Baron de Saint-Julien, the then Receiver General of the French Clergy. However there is little evidence for this, according to Ingamells, 163-164.
  4. ^ Fragonard, The Swing. khanacademy.org. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  5. ^ Wallace Collection
  6. ^ "François Marie Ménage de Pressigny". The British Museum. Trustees of the British Museum. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
  7. ^ Ingamells, 165
  8. ^ "Exploring Fragonard's The Swing". www.wallacecollection.org. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  9. ^ a b Wallace Collection (1908). Catalogue of the Oil Paintings and Water Colours in the Wallace Collection (8th ed.). Read Books Design. ISBN 9781445542393. A repetition of by no means equal merit is in the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild; a smaller version was in that of the Duc de Polignac (see Virgile Josz: Fragonard).
  10. ^ Bremmer, Jan (1991). From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. Routledge. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0-415-06300-5. Note 4: According to Nevill (1903), a replica with a blue instead of a pink dress is in the possession of Baron de Rothschild.
  11. ^ Base Joconde: L'escarpolette, French Ministry of Culture. (in French)
  12. ^ "About This Artwork – The Art Institute of Chicago". Art Institute of Chicago. 1792. Retrieved 2011-11-19.

    "R. S. Johnson Fine Art". R. S. Johnson Fine Art. Retrieved 2011-11-19.[permanent dead link]

  13. ^ University of Illinois (Winter 1998). "Modern American Poetry". Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  14. ^ "Neon Park". lambiek.net. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  15. ^ Terry Byrne (14 June 2008). "Moving tales of love make 'contact'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 8 August 2018. 'Swinging' tells the story behind a painting by 18th-century artist Jean-Honore Fragonard, in which a girl on a swing (Ariel Shepley) is teasing her companion (Jake Pfarr), while a servant (Sean Ewing) pushes the swing for her.
  16. ^ "Yinka Shonibare, MBE The Swing (after Fragonard), Yinka Shonibare, MBE Tate". Tate. Retrieved 2014-08-04.
  17. ^ "Look What We Found in Frozen | Disney Insider". Oh My Disney. 2013-12-10. Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  18. ^ "Harley Quinn Season 3's Poster Is a Perfect Microcosm of the Series". CBR.com. 2022-07-27. Retrieved 2022-08-15.

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Les Hasards heureux de l'escarpolette by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
External videos
video icon Fragonard's The Swing, Smarthistory
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