The Swing
Medium
engraving
Dimensions
62.5 × 46.8 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund
Accession Number
1923.580
Tags
male
About this artwork
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...