Commissioned by an unnamed “gentleman of the Court:’’ a painting of his young mistress on a swing; in an early version, a bishop is pushing the swing with the gentleman admiring his mistress’s legs from below
In the finished painting, the older man is no longer a priest, a barking dog has been added, and Falconet’s sculpture of Menacing Love comments on the story
The patron in the lower left looks up the skirt of a young lady who swings flirtatiously, boldly kicking off her shoe at a sculpture
The dog in the lower right corner, generally seen as a symbol of fidelity, barks in disapproval at the scene before him
Context
Fragonard answers the libertine intentions of his patron by painting in the Rococo style
Fragonard often used different styles at the same time, and he seems to have seen the Rococo as particularly appropriate for an erotic scene
An intriguing painting; the patron hides in a bower; the garden sculpture of Menacing Love asks the lady to be discreet and may be a symbol for the secret hiding of the patron
