The Swing

c. 1775/1780

Jean Honoré Fragonard

Artist, French, 1732 - 1806

From a distance, we look down onto and across a lush park filled with elegantly dressed, light-skinned adults and children gathered in small groups as one woman swings from tall trees in this vertical painting. The color palette is dominated by celery and avocado green and soft straw yellow. An aquamarine-blue sky with towering white and ash-gray clouds fills the upper three-quarters of this painting. On our left, soaring trees reach two-thirds of the way up the composition. Two walls mark an entrance to the garden in the lower left. Stone fountains carved into the shape of lions sit on top of the walls with streams of water pouring from their mouths to urns below. People gather next to the entrance and further down a slope to our right. They relax together in pairs except for one group, which has two women and two children. The women’s long dresses have ruffled sleeves that come to their elbows, and the men wear long jackets and knee-length britches over stockings. A woman wearing a butter-yellow and rose-pink ball gown sits on a swing with ropes tied back into the trees to our left. She swings out diagonally high above the other people. Below the woman, some of the people watch and point to her as she swings. To our right, a woman in a crimson-red and yellow gown sits on a boxy, stone structure and looks through a telescope while a man leaning onto the box, wearing a brown coat, looks on. A woman in a strawberry-red dress and a man in a teal-blue jacket play with a small white dog at the edge of the pool in front of the entrance while another woman and man sit and stand between the entrance walls. In the distance to our right, trees and shrubs grow in front of pewter-gray hills under the lavender-purple horizon.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 55

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 215.9 x 185.5 cm (85 x 73 1/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.17

More About this Artwork

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Scholarly Article:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries: The Swing, c. 1775/1780

A young woman draws on an oval surface with white chalk while three winged, baby-like putti gather nearby, all on a bank of pale pink clouds in this horizontal painting. The woman and putti have pale, rosy skin, flushed cheeks, and hazel-brown eyes. To our left, the woman reclines with her upper body propped up on her far elbow, which rests on a steel-blue cushion as her legs stretch out to our right. Her light brown hair is braided and wrapped across the top of her head. She wears a loose, seafoam-green robe over a billowing ivory-white garment that has slipped off the shoulder closer to us. A round paint palette with brushes sticking out of its thumb hole and a roll of blue and white paper sit in the lower left corner, behind the woman. The woman and the objects are on a red cloth. In front of the woman is a rounded surface, perhaps a canvas, on which she draws. She holds up a gold-colored stylus with her right hand, closer to us, with a pointed piece of white chalk in one end and black chalk in the other. The canvas is taller than her head, so the child-like putto she draws on it is life-sized. The three nude putti on the far side of the canvas have copper or golden-blond, curly hair, flushed, rounded cheeks, short wings in white or peacock blue, pudgy torsos, and dimpled limbs. One putto, presumably the one the woman draws, sits back on the bank of clouds with a carnation-pink sash across his chest. He pulls his chin back and looks at her from under his eyebrows. He holds a gold-colored torch with a pink flame in one hand, and the other hand rests near a cylindrical quiver of arrows. Another putto peeks around the side of the canvas, and the third stands and props the canvas up. That third putto holds up a wreath of laurel leaves up over the canvas, above the woman’s drawing hand. The bank of clouds is parchment-brown with muted pink and blue highlights against a vivid blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “F Boucher – 1765.”

Scholarly Series:  French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Casimir Perrin, marquis de Cypierre [1783-1844], Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence by Thoré, Paris, 10 March 1845 and days following, no. 52 or 53).[1] possibly marquise de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Paris;[2] Camille Groult [1837-1908], Paris, possibly from 1889, to1908.[3] (Wildenstein & Co., New York); sold February 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] This is the first confirmed record of the painting. For discussion of possible earlier provenance now rejected by scholars, see Richard Rand's entry on this painting and its pendant, Blindman's Buff (NGA 1961.9.16), in Philip Conisbee, et al., French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, 2009: 199, 202 nn. 13, 14.
[2] The pair of paintings were possibly the two Fragonards sold from the Montesquiou-Fezensac collection to Henri Haro, buying for Camille Groult, prior to its 1897 sale at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19 March 1897; see Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977: 331 n. 17.
[3] Groult's ownership was incorrectly given as "until at least 1889" in the provenance for the painting published in the NGA's 2009 catalogue (see note 1). Thanks to correspondence from Olafur Thorvaldsson (e-mail of 27 September 2019, in NGA curatorial files), Groult's ownership can be further clarified.
Groult was given as the owner of the paintings in publications of 1889 (Portalis; who actually places only NGA 1961.9.16 in Groult's collection, and confuses the provenances of three paintings in his entry), 1906 (Nolhac), 1908 (Flament; kindly sent to NGA by Mr. Thorvaldsson), and 1927 (Reau). If Groult did not acquire the paintings until 1897 (see note 2 about this possibility), the 1889 publication is in error. Since Groult died in 1908, the 1927 publication must have meant he was a former owner, although it is possible the painting was inherited by his son, Jean Groult (1868-1951). The painting was not included in the 21 March 1952 sale of the Groult collection.
[4] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2302) is dated February 10, 1954, and was for a total of fourteen paintings; payments by the Foundation continued to March 1957.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1961

  • Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1961-1962, no. 179, repro.

1987

  • Fragonard, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1988, no. 162.

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 80, fig. 165.

2003

  • The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Altes Museum, Berlin, 2003-2004, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

n.d.

  • Wentzel, H. "Jean-Honoré Fragonards Schaukel." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 26 (1964): 214-216, repro.

1880

  • Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1880-1884: 2:334.

1889

  • Portalis, Roger. Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et son oeuvre. 2 vols. Paris, 1889: 272.

1906

  • Nolhac, Pierre de. J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1906: 69-71, no. 150

1908

  • Flament, Albert. "La Collection Groult." L'Illustration, no. 3386 (18 January 1908): 54 repro., 56.

1956

  • Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 242-244, repro. 241, 242, 243.

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 629, color repro. 654.

  • Réau, Louis. Fragonard: sa vie et son oeuvre. Brussels, 1956: 158.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 66, pl. 149.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 367, repro.

  • Wildenstein, Georges. "L'abbé de Saint-Non artiste et mécène." Gazette des Beaux- Arts ser. 6, no. 54 (November 1959): 244.

1960

  • Wildenstein, Georges. The Paintings of Fragonard. New York, 1960: no. 447

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 19, color repro. 21.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 187, repro. pl. 179, 180.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 110, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 318, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 52.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:320, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 44, repro.

1972

  • Mandel, Gabriele. L'Opera completa di Fragonard. Milan, 1972: no. 471, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 132, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 329-331, figs. 296, 298.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 86, pl. 74.

1980

  • Fried, Michael. Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot. Berkeley, 1980: 139, repro.

1981

  • Conisbee, Philip. Painting in Eighteenth-Century France. Ithaca, 1981: 178, repro.

1982

  • Posner, Donald. "The Swinging Women of Watteau and Fragonard." The Art Bulletin 64, no. 1: (March 1982): 80, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 338, no. 457, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 159, repro.

1987

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Vie et oeuvre." Fribourg, 1987. English edition New York, 1988: 202-203, 325, no. 339, repro.

1989

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard. Paris, 1989: 106, no. 312-313, repro.

1993

  • Massengale, Jean Montague. Jean-Honoré Fragonard. New York, 1993: 40, repro.

2000

  • Milam, Jennifer. "Playful Constructions and Fragonard's Swinging Scenes." Eighteenth Century Studies 33, no. 4 (Summer 2000): 548, 551, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 252-253, no. 204, color repro.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. "Fragonard, La Fête à Saint-Cloud, Louis-Pierre Marchal de Sainscy, et la Banque de France." In Place de Victoires: histoire, architecture, societé. Ed. Isabelle Dubois et. al. Paris, 2004: 255, 257, repro.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 59, fig. 58a, 73, 269 (not in the exhibition).

2006

  • Milam, Jennifer. Fragonard's Playful Paintings: Visual Games in Rococo Art. Manchester, 2006:61, 67, 131, 139, 141, 146, 159-160, 163, 165 n. 9.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 41, 195-203, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q12859951

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