Why it matters
A young woman flies high on a swing, kicking off her shoe towards her lover hidden in the bushes, while an older man pushes the swing unaware. Fragonard's best-known work is one of the masterpieces of Rococo frivolity: exactly the kind of art Enlightenment critics soon condemned.
Did you know?
- Its original title is The Happy Accidents of the Swing.
- The painter Doyen turned the commission down and passed it to Fragonard.
- The patron had asked for his mistress to be pushed by a bishop; Fragonard painted a layman instead.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Swing (Fragonard) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
