Today's scheme is based on The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Fluffy, sweet, and naughty.
The Swing, also known as The Happy Accidents of The Swing, is an 18th-century oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a French painter and printmaker.
In dramatist and songwriter Charles Collé's journal entry dated October 1767, we learn that Fragonard was not the artist initially approached regarding this painting. Collé writes about a conversation he had with history painter Gabriel-François Doyen, explaining how Doyen refused the commission (he is described by Collé as being 'confounded and petrified' by the nature of the painting) and passed it onto Fragonard.
The client (believed by some researchers to be Baron de Saint-Julien, a tax collector of the French clergy) had requested a portrait of himself watching his young mistress on a swing being pushed by a bishop (although Fragonard painted what appears to be a layman instead). The client wanted the artist to place him 'in such a way that [he] would be able to see the legs of the lovely girl'.
Art historian and former director of The Wallace Collection (where The Swing resides) John Ingamells claims there is little evidence of the commissioner being Baron de Saint-Julien, as he is not recorded having purchased The Swing, although he did purchase five other Fragonard works between 1784 and 1785, two being Blind Man's Buff and The See-Saw.
Ingamells does go on to suggest in The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures, Volume 3: French Before 1815 (available to borrow on the Internet Archive) that the layman is 'probably the husband inadvertently encouraging the lover'. Iain Zaczek at Britannica also proposes the idea that the man pushing the swing is the 'cuckolded husband'. This is a widely accepted interpretation.
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The original L'Amour menaçant by Étienne Maurice Falconet, 1757. Via Rijksmuseum.
The painting references another affair-induced commission. The cupid we see on the left was modeled off the 1757 sculpture L'Amour menaçant that Étienne Maurice Falconet made for Madame de Pompadour, King Louis XV's mistress. The shushing motion is seen by some as a symbol of discretion.
The lover among the rose bush gets a full view under the woman's skirt. We even see her stockings and a garter, which was the height of eroticism in 18th century French art. This flirtatious act signals her rejection of the traditional constraints of female modesty. Her shoe flying through the air is yet another symbol of decadence, frivolity, and fun-filled abandon. Erotic artworks like this one would have been displayed in private intimate rooms known as cabinets, where only the patron and his innermost circle would have appreciated the work.
Scholars Clive Hart and Kay Stevensoncall in their book Heaven and the Flesh: Imagery of Desire from the Renaissance to the Rococo claim that The Swing is a 'disguised representation of inverted sexual intercourse'. Simply put, they see the painting as a cheeky implication of a sex act that situates the woman on top as she swings back and forth above her lover, who 'in lieu of a penis', extends his left arm which is 'grotesquely too big', and points it to the 'object of his attention'. Huh.
Swinging was a popular leisure activity among the aristocratic class and loosened up its participants. Art historian Jennifer Milam writes in her 2000 essay Playful Constructions and Fragonard's Swinging Scenes that swinging in uninhibited positions revealed the body and spectators were able to catch a glimpse of views that were usually hidden from sight.
The Swing is an excellent example of the exuberance and elegance of Rococo art.
So, here is the room I put together based on the colour scheme of The Swing...
Thibaut Laos Wallpaper in Navy from Jane Clayton, £102.00/roll ・ Wool Wilton Svelte Carpet in Chalk by Crucial Trading, £206.00/m² ・ Camille 2 Drawer Bedside Table by Millie & Jones, £329.00 ・ Camille Combination Wardrobe by Millie & Jones, £969.00 ・ Jonesy Armchair in Allotment Clever Cotton by Loaf, £1,295.00 ・ Calabria Navy & Cayenne Rug by Ruggable, from £119.00 ・ Florrie Embroidered Cotton Duvet Cover Set by Furn, from £46.00 ・ Plain Velvet Fitzrovia Headboard in Downham Sky by Warner House, from £700.00 ・ Marie Flanigan Price Small Alabaster Table Lamp from Visual Comfort, £1,499.00 ・ Antique 19th Century Framed Pastel Drawing from Rag & Bone, £120.00 ・ Nicolas Langlois 'La Fontaine de l'Étoile' Early 20th Century Coloured Etching from Rustique, £395.00 ・ Delphine Floral Piped Cushion Cover in Coral by Furn, £19.00 ・ Floris Large Piped Velvet Cushion by House of Hackney, £195.00 ・ Cotton Velvet Bolster Cushion in Olive by John Lewis, £20.00 ・ Chapman & Myers Antigua 13" Pendant from Visual Comfort, £849.00.
(If a product isn't linked it's because it was probably a PNG from Google Images.)
Little references to the painting include the pendant made of natural abacá (mimicking the rope swing) and a little portrait of a girl in a peach dress which looks very similar to the one the woman on the swing is wearing. I thought that was a cracking find.
See The Swing at The Wallace Collection in London.
Information: Britannica, The Burlington Magazine, Wikipedia, The Wallace Collection, Artsy, Daily Art Magazine, Tatler, Smarthistory, Artnet.
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