Fragonard's Swinging Women

Art in eighteenth century France transitioned in correspondence with the extravagant and lavish lifestyle of aristocrats. Louis XV’s taste and preference for frivolous art, shifted the style and subject matters of paintings—leaving behind the rhetoric and dynamism that were linked with the baroque period. With very light and fleeting subject matters, the Rococo period produced some of the most ornamented and decorative art in history.  Rococo painters generally depict pastoral scenes and landscapes that frame aristocratic figures enjoying leisurely activities—sometimes with sensuous and flirtatious undertones.

Donald Posner’s article The Swinging Women of Watteau and Fragonard, discusses how the usage of the swing in Rococo paintings helped reinforce the subject matter—or lack thereof—in works by Watteau and Fragonard. According to Posner, the swing can symbolize a fleeting quality, fickleness, a woman’s wavering desire or indecision, and the obvious sexual symbolism of swinging back and forth.  Using a swing as a prop in the leisurely paintings of Watteau and Fragonard, tie in nicely with the purpose of the painting, and its intended audience at the time.  Prior to the French Revolution, aristocrats enjoyed many luxuries and pastimes.  Collecting art to decorate their apartments was popular, and showing scenes of love, or love triangles were appreciated.

In his article, Posner frequently referred to the swing as representing a woman’s fickleness and indecision. The Swing by Fragonard, depicts a woman soaring on a swing in a garden, assistant by one man, and being scandalously admired by another, who peeks up her skirt, as her shoe flies off. According to Posner, the swing in the painting refers to an activity that takes place at night, which is reinforced by the artist and the commissioner through the framing trees and the time of day.  The fickleness of the woman is displayed, in regards to the possible interpersonal relationship she has with the two men, and can be interpreted in numerous ways. A flying shoe, according to Posner, can symbolize a surrender to love.

Although Peter Paul Rubens is a painter known from the baroque era, his painting the Garden of Love, has similarities to Watteau and Fragonard’s works. Garden of Love, like other Rococo paintings, uses chiaroscuro, diagonals within the composition, and ornamented landscapes. Watteau and Fragonard have a Rubenist style of painting, preferred over the academic Poussainist style. Peter Paul Rubens’ paintings were a solid example of the transition between baroque into rococo. In the Garden of Love, depicted are figures at leisure, experiencing flirtatious innuendoes in suggestion of frivolous love.  There are similarities between Rubens’ Garden of Love and Watteau’s The Shepherds.  Both paintings depict a group of lovers that are interacting with each other in different ways. The women in both paintings are voluptuous and there is a concentration on their breasts. The women become decorative pieces within the composition. Rubens ultimately paves the way for the painterly style that becomes popular throughout the eighteenth century. Both paintings have compositional diagonals that help lead the viewer’s eye. Initially, glancing at the works, the eye is led to brush over the figures in a transient way, which heightens the fleeting movement captured within composition.

Rubens’ painterly style and locus uberrimus subject matters contributed to the mounting tastes and desires of the French monarch and aristocracy. Watteau and Fragonard were followers of Rubens style and technique. Their depictions of swings in their paintings fit well into the desired taste of the Rococo period.