Fragonard's The Swing (1767): The Lost Shoe and the Hidden Lover
Jean-Honore Fragonard's The Swing (1767) shows a young woman on a swing, her pink silk dress in a froth of petticoats, as she kicks off a shoe toward a statue of Cupid. A young man hides in the bushes at the left to look up her skirt, and an older man pulls the ropes from the right, unaware. It is the best-known painting of the French Rococo.
The facts at a glance
Artist: Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), French
Work: The Swing, also called The Happy Accidents of the Swing, 1767
Technique: oil on canvas, about 81 x 65 cm
Style: Rococo
Who commissioned The Swing, and what did he ask for?
An often-repeated account describes how a nobleman, the baron de Saint-Julien, wanted a portrait of his mistress on a swing, pushed by a bishop, with himself in the foreground where he could see her legs. He first asked the history painter Gabriel-Francois Doyen, who was shocked by the idea of the bishop and passed the job to Fragonard. The bishop was replaced by the husband, and the picture became a comedy of three people.
That tells you what the painting is. It is not a moral lesson or a historical subject. It is a private joke made for a rich man, and Fragonard painted it with enough charm that the joke has lasted more than 250 years.
What does the flying shoe mean?
It is a signal. The lady's pink shoe is caught in the air at the top of her swing, and it is flying toward a small stone Cupid who raises a finger to his lips, as if asking for silence. In the French erotic imagery of the 1700s a shoe and a slipper were a coy way to talk about intimacy, and the sculpture says that what follows is a secret.
The light is in on it, too. A beam falls on the woman and on the young man, but the old man at the right sits in the shade.
Who is the man in the bushes?
He is the lover, shown reclining on the grass at the left with his hat in one hand and his arm stretched out toward her. The angle of the swing was chosen to give him a view. His face and hers are turned toward each other, and the whole composition curves from him through her to the shoe and the Cupid.
Who is the man pulling the ropes?
He is the husband, or the patron's stand-in for the husband, and he is the butt of the joke. He stands in shadow at the right, working the ropes from behind, and he sees nothing. The scene works as a classic theatre triangle of the period: a trusting older man, a young wife, a hidden admirer.
Why is The Swing the defining painting of the Rococo?
Everything in it is soft: the pink silk, the garden foliage like wet cloud, the glow at the top of the picture, the pastel palette of sage, rose and cream. Rococo painters took the grand subjects of the Baroque and turned them into pleasure, play and flirtation for private rooms. Fragonard is the last great painter of the type. A few years later the French Revolution made this world impossible to paint without irony. For the full period, read The Rococo: Ten Paintings That Defined an Aristocratic Century.
Fragonard is also a good entry point to the other French painters of the century; see Ten Famous French Painters from Watteau to Toulouse-Lautrec.
Is there more than one version of The Swing?
Yes. Fragonard painted a smaller variant, and several copies and later engraved versions exist. Check the dimensions and caption if you are buying a print, because crops of the foliage and the woman alone are common.
How does The Swing look on a wall?
It is a gentle, warm picture, and it works in a bedroom, a dressing room or a pale dining room. The pink and green sit well against cream or soft sage walls, with a gilt frame. For other pictures that carry the same old-world calm, see Old Money Wall Art: Eight Paintings for the Quiet-Luxury Aesthetic.
Zocine Art Design is an independent studio that prints classic paintings as wall art.
Frequently asked questions
What is the meaning of Fragonard's The Swing?
It is a playful scene of flirtation: a young woman on a swing kicks off her shoe toward a Cupid statue while her lover watches from the bushes and her older husband, who pushes the swing, does not see him.
Who commissioned The Swing?
The commission is often attributed to the baron de Saint-Julien, after the painter Doyen declined it.
What does the shoe in The Swing mean?
The flying shoe is an erotic signal in the Rococo manner, and the Cupid statue holding a finger to his lips tells us to keep the secret.
Browse Fragonard and other classic art prints in the archive at Zocine.
New in the Journal: The Rococo: Ten Paintings That Defined an Aristocratic Century
New in the Journal: Old Money Wall Art: Eight Paintings for the Quiet-Luxury Aesthetic
New in the Journal: Ten Famous French Painters from Watteau to Toulouse-Lautrec
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