# A Game of Hot Cockles [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [FRAGONARD, Jean-Honoré]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 116 x 92 cm ## Commentary This painting is a pendant of A Game of Horse and Rider. The pendants were meant to be installed in boiseries as part of a larger decorative program. They are equal in size and have similar colour schemes and compositions, and their subjects are complementary; each focuses on richly verdant gardens in which groups of figures have gathered to enjoy games in the outdoors. The two games depicted in the pendants were common in Fragonard's time. Hot Cockles \("la main chaude"\) is a game in which sleight of hand and close attention are rewarded. One player, the "penitent," hides his face in the lap of a second \(called the "confessor," a referee who monitors the game\) and places his hand flat behind his back. In turn, other players slap the penitent on the hand, and he tries to identify who hit him. The player who lets himself be discovered becomes the penitent. The game is played by elegantly dressed young adults in a formal garden, with clipped hedges, smooth parterres, potted trees, and discreetly placed sculptures. The pendants owe a debt to Oudry, whose designs for a tapestry cycle on the theme of "Amusements champêtres" include representations of Horse and Rider and <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/o/oudry/father/zcockles.html'\)" href="/html/o/oudry/father/zcockles.html">Hot Cockles</a> that are closely related to Fragonard's compositions. ## Related artworks - [A Boy as Pierrot]() - [A Game of Horse and Rider]() - [A Young Girl Reading]() - [A Young Girl Sleeping]() - [A Young Scholar]() - [Abbé de Saint-Non \(Fanciful Figure\)]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Blindman's Buff \(detail\)]() - [Blindman's Buff]() - [Coresus Sacrificing himself to Save Callirhoe]() - [Cypresses in the Garden Avenue of the Villa]() - [Denis Diderot \(Fanciful Figure\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()