Thus this theory further strengthens the theme of forbidden love in the painting. He is swinging her back and forth. With the exhilaration of vertigo play, swinging permitted occasions of sexual disorder where uninhibited positions revealed the body and spectators glimpsed views that were usually hidden from sight, she observes. It took me quite some time to see the dog myself. Grandma's old painting sells for over $600,000 / Family puts - SFGATE Jean-Honor Fragonard, Les Hasards Heureux de L'Escarpolette (The Swing), 1767. However, artists like Pieter Bruegel were drawn to the life of the everyday people we meet in passing. We will start with a brief contextual analysis and the significance of such subject matter during 18th-century France, as well as what made this painting quite salacious for its time. She sits on a red velvet seat with golden detailing in the middle of a beautiful lush garden. As he releases the ropes, she leans back and extends her legs, expelling a tiny pink slipper from her pointed foot. In 18th-century France, gardens were becoming romantic sites of bourgeois escape; the fashionably dressed woman here appears like a flower in full bloom. Appraisal results will vary according to the intended purpose of the appraisal. -FanExpo Boston. It is believed that the person who commissioned the painting was in love with the woman in the picture. We see a pink slipper slip out of her dainty foot into the air. You may need advice from a restorer to determine what condition your art is in, especially if it is an older work. From the steps above, hopefully you have learned to appreciate and enjoy your artwork even more. This article has been viewed 194,350 times. Others happily buy print reproductions of his original paintings, and The Swing is Fragonard's best known painting as well as most popular. If a painting only has 1 or 2 spots of texture, it may be a forgery disguising itself as the real deal. Camille PissarroImpressionist. This was a common characteristic of his artwork and possibly a very early example of techniques we will find in Impressionist painters artworks. It is believed that one of the men in the painting was the husband of the female on the Swing, whilst the other was someone with whom she was having an affair. Using a series of connected ropes, he pulls the swing back to create the momentum necessary to propel the woman forward.