The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
The Swing
1782
(French, 1739–1792)
after Jean-Honoré Fragonard
(French, 1732–1806)
Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1923.580
Catalogue raisonné: Portalis and Béraldi 540
Location: not on view
Description
This large print, based on a painting by Fragonard, symbolizes the pleasure-seeking and frivolous aspects of Rococo art. Unbeknownst to the man pushing the swing, a suitor reclining in the bushes gets a glimpse under the woman's skirts as she flies through the air, losing her shoe. Contemporary viewers would have understood the association of the lost shoe with sexual dalliance, a motif reinforced by other elements within the image, such as the cavorting nude figures on the base of the statue of a cupid who gestures "hush." Delaunay's work is extremely successful in translating the qualities of a painting into the more restricted vocabulary of graphic techniques. He masterfully transposed Fragonard's charming composition, retaining all of the movement and verve of the painting. Using a rich variety of hatchings, cross-hatchings, and dots, Delaunay conveyed the tonal range, lighting, and spatial effects of the painting remarkably well.- Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001).Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).Exhibition of the Month: "Rococo Style in Various Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 30, 1945).Miscellaneous Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 23-October 23, 1924).
- {{cite web|title=The Swing|url=false|author=Nicolas Delaunay, Jean-Honoré Fragonard|year=1782|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1923.580