The Swing

The painting was originally commissioned from a serious history painter by an unknown French nobleman (he was not the Baron the St Julien as has been assumed in the past): 'I desire', he said, 'that you should paint Madame (pointing to his mistress) on a swing which is being set in motion by a Bishop. You must place me where I can have a good view of the legs of this pretty little thing....'. The serious history painter could think of nothing else to say except to recommend M. Fragonard as a more suitable executant.

You can view <A onclick="return OpenOther('/cgi-bin/search.cgi?author=&title=The+AND+%28Swing&comment=&time=any&school=any&form=any&type=any&location=&header=0&other=0&caption=Representations+of+the+motif+The+Swing')" HREF="/cgi-bin/search.cgi?author=&title=The+AND+%28Swing&comment=&time=any&school=any&form=any&type=any&location=&header=0&other=0&caption=Representations+of+the+motif+The+Swing">other representations</A> of the motif "The Swing." <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 19 minutes):<BR><A HREF="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/music1/19_cent/tchaikovsky_rococo.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350');w.opener=this;w.focus();return true"><B>Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> <BR CLEAR=LEFT><BR>