The Swing (French: L'Escarpolette), also known as The Happy Accidents of the Swing (French: Les Hasards heureux de l'escarpolette, the original title), is an 18th-century oil painting by Jean-Honore Fragonard in the Wallace Collection in London. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the rococo era, and is Fragonard's best known work.


== Painting ==
The painting depicts a young man hidden in the bushes, watching a woman on a swing, being pushed by an elderly man, almost hidden in the shadows, and unaware of the lover. As the lady goes high on the swing, she lets the young man take a furtive peep under her dress, all while flicking her own shoe off in the direction of a Cupid and turning her back to two angelic cherubim on the side of the older man.
The lady is wearing a bergere hat (shepherdess hat) which is ironic since shepherds are normally associated with virtue because of their living close to nature, uncorrupted by the temptations of the city.
According to the memoirs of the dramatist Charles Colle, a courtier (homme de la cour) asked first Gabriel Francois Doyen to make this painting of him and his mistress. Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard. The man had requested a portrait of his mistress seated on a swing being pushed by a bishop, but Fragonard painted a layman.
This style of "frivolous" painting soon became the target of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, who demanded a more serious art which would show the nobility of man.


== Provenance ==
The original owner remains unclear. A firm provenance begins only with the tax farmer M.-F. Menage de Pressigny, who died in 1794, after which it was seized by the revolutionary government. It was possibly later owned by the marquis des Razins de Saint-Marc, and certainly by the duc de Morny. After his death in 1865 it was bought at auction in Paris by Lord Hertford, the main founder of the Wallace Collection.


== Copies ==
There are a number of copies, none by Fragonard.
one once owned by Edmond James de Rothschild, slightly different from the original; the lady's dress is blue, not pink
a smaller version (56 x 46 cm) owned by Duke Jules de Polignac. This painting became the property of the Grimaldi family in 1930 when Pierre de Polignac (1895-1964) married Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois (1898-1977). In 1966, it was given by the Grimaldi & Labeyrie Collection to the city of Versailles, where it is currently exhibited at the Musee Lambinet, attributed to Fragonard's workshop.


== Notable derived works ==
1782: Les Hazards [sic] Heureux de l'Escarpolettes [sic], etching and engraving by Nicolas de Launay (1739-1792), 62.3 x 45.5 cm (24  5/8  x 17  7/8  in). Contrary to the original painting, the lady is facing right and has plumes on her hat (among other dissimilarities) because it was drawn after the replica owned by Edmond de Rothschild.
1972: Sailin' Shoes, cover art of record album by American rock band Little Feat, artwork by Neon Park
1999: The first act of the ballet Contact: The Musical by Susan Stroman and John Weidman is described as a "contact improvisation" on the painting.
2001: The Swing (after Fragonard), a headless lifesize recreation of Fragonard's model clothed in African fabric, by Yinka Shonibare
2010: The animated film Tangled uses visual style on The Swing.
2013: In Frozen, a painting based on The Swing appears in the portrait gallery in Arendelle's castle (as a reference to Tangled) during "For the First Time in Forever." In one shot, Anna jumps in front of the painting and copies the pose of the woman on the swing. The version in the film omits the statue of Cupid and the male figure in the bushes.


== Notes ==


== References ==
Wallace Collection webpage
Ingamells, John, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Pictures, Vol III, French before 1815, Wallace Collection, 1989, ISBN 0-900785-35-7
Farber, Allen (2006-04-05). "Fragonard's The Happy Accidents of the Swing". State University of New York at Oneonta. Retrieved 2009-01-18. 


== External links ==
The painting at the Wallace Collection website
The Swing - Analysis and Critical Reception
 Media related to Les Hasards heureux de l'escarpolette at Wikimedia Commons