The stories in paintings...

Fragonard's scenes of frivolity and gallantry are considered the embodiment of the Rococo spirit, but I think it is exactly that 'frillyness' that make his paintings so charming.

A pupil of Chardin and later Boucher, he won the Prix de Rome and from 1756 to 1761 was in Italy, where he developed a particular admiration for Tiepolo and the late Baroque style. In this period he specialized in large historical paintings.

Returning to Paris, he soon changed this style, adopting instead the erotic subjects then in vogue and for which he is chiefly known, of which The Swing is the most famous. In this same spirit are some of his other famous pictures, The See-Saw, Blindman's Bluff, The Stolen Kiss, and the Meeting. After his marriage in 1769, he began painting children and family scenes (usually called genre painting) and even returned to religious subjects. He stopped exhibiting publicly in 1770 and all his later works are commissions from private patrons.

This picture became an immediate success, not merely for its technical excellence, but for the scandal behind it. To many, it embodies the entire spirit of the ancien regime on the eve of the revolution. What elements do you find representative of French society and morals?
That ot is loaded with sexual symbolism cannot be ignored. The unknown patron was likely a gentleman of the court and originally asked Gabriel-Francois Doyen to do the commission. He asked Doyen to paint his mistress on a swing that was to be pushed by a bishop. He wanted to include himself in the scene, in a position where he could look up the woman's skirts. In the end Doyen rejected the commission and referred the patron to Fragonard.

The couple in the painting appear to be having a secret affair, or are about to have one. This is indicated by the statue of Cupid holding a finger to his lips. The swing is a symbol of the fickle, playful woman. As the woman is swinging, her skirts part so that the man laying below is able to see up them. The man pushing the swing may be a bishop, or perhaps he is the woman's father or husband who is unaware of what is going on. The man holds out his hat and offers it to the woman as she loses her shoe, which suggests that they are both promiscuous. Her shoe flies through the air and will land in the bushes, where the couple will likely meet for a tryst.

My, my...!