The Troubling Morals of this 18th Century French Masterpiece

How to read The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

At the very heart of this painting is an act of voyeurism. As the original title of this painting makes clear, in The Happy Accidents of the Swing, the sweetest pleasure depicted in this painting is supposed to be of a man looking up a woman’s dress.

Everything about the painting is lavish and overgrown. In the verdant grounds of a country estate, the scene is set where the elite of society can role-play as shepherds or milkmaids. The woman is wearing a bergère hat — a shepherdess’ bonnet, and a flowing dress as she swings through the air. Behind her a man stands pulling on two ropes so that she will swing higher and faster. Hidden in the shadows he is her unwitting husband, blissfully unaware of the antics going on in front of him.

The higher that the husband swings her, the more that the gentleman in the lower left-hand corner gets to see. He is sprawled somewhat outlandishly in the undergrowth of a shrub, looking upwards. The direction of his gaze, combined with the gaping expression on his face, the phallic symbolism of his extended arm, along with the splayed fingers of his other hand — telling details of surprise and delight — inform us exactly where his eyes are fixed.

Where the painting gets more troubling is in the suggestion that the woman is complicit in the flirtatious tomfoolery. As she swings, she kicks her leg up so enthusiastically that her shoe has escaped her foot and is flinging through the air.

The flying shoes make her role in the game emphatic. The artist has depicted the woman not as unsuspecting prey but as a playful counterpart.

Whilst she is shown as fully complicit, we have to remember that this is a representation, an invention on behalf of an artist to please his viewing audience.

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