The Use of Swings

Swings in lush outdoor settings were a popular subject matter in the 18th and 19th century. This is because they have a romantic and voyeuristic nuance, and in the majority of the paintings, the swing was manipulated by interested men. Many of these paintings were commissioned for royal men and and used as decoration for people in a high social class and were typically large. They were especially popular in France but their were also some Spanish painters who created swing pieces. In the 18th century, French women were known for placing importance on their fancy dress. There was a focus on a small waist from a corseted dress and they also liked to have large silky skirts which are often portrayed in the rococo style. This is seen in The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (c. 1767-1768) and Lancret also had an emphasis on the womans small waist in The Swing (c. 1730). All these pieces were done with oil on canvas and are genre paintings. They contain symbolism with the swing and romantic relationships between men and women. Several artists added their own sculptures to the painting or even their family as seen in The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876) when Renoir has his brother in the composition. In the 18th and 19th century, swing compositions were popular among French and Spanish upper class because of their romantic and sexual indications.

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Title: The Swing

Date: 1876

Medium: Oil on canvas

Musée d’Orsay

Renoir created this piece as a snapshot of an interaction between four main subjects. There are five figures in the background hidden behind rough brush strokes so they are faded and the main figures are the focus in the foreground. Two of the people in front are women, one a little girl and the other young lady. The remaining two men are the artists brother and another painter, Norbert Goeneutte. Renoir creates a moment of surprise where one man is glancing over at the other and the woman is looking away in embarrassment. This painting was not received well by critics at the 1877 impressionist exhibition because of the way he portrayed pale patches of light. There is many speculation of what the men could have said to the woman to embarrass her but no one knows the true interaction for sure.

Artist: Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Title: The Swing

Date: c. 1767-1768

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Wallace Collection

The Swing was one of Fragonard’s most famous works and it was done when he was transitioning from being a history painter to creating royal commissions. An unknown man commissioned the work and he is seen in the bottom left of the picture. The painting contains two men both watching a woman in a pink dress on a swing. She has carelessly flown her legs in the air which her lover admires from below. This causes her shoe to fly off and it is seen suspended in the air. The man swinging her is a layman, who is a non ordained member of the church. On the left, Fragonard has added his Menacing Love sculpture to this fancied scene. This painting was created for the nobleman's mistress who is  seen on the swing.

Artist: Nicolas Lancret

Title: The Swing

Date: c. 1730

Medium: Oil on canvas

Victoria and Albert Museum

Lancret created this painting in the 1730s to show off his ability to paint genre settings with outdoor figures. It contains a woman being pulled on a swing by a man in an unknown wooded area. Both figures are in clothes that show they are of a higher social class. The woman is looking away from the man and slightly blushing while he looks intently at her. This encounter is hinting at sexual desires between the couple. Lancret most likely created this painting to be used as a decoration in a noble persons house.

Artist: Francisco Goya

Title: The Swing

Date: 1779

Medium: Oil on canvas

Museo Nacional del Prado

This painting is one of Francisco Goya lesser known works. It is a genre painting and was done in the romanticism style. The painting is Spanish and slightly different from the French paintings. The focal point is a woman on a swing surrounded by several children. There is a young boy pulling the swing but several men are watching in the background who are interested onlookers. The children represent the woman's fertility and they are there to show that she cares about them and enjoys spending time with them. Like the French paintings, the woman is a noble woman who is in a corseted dress that is showing off her small waist. There is another woman in plainer clothing who is there to watch the children.

Artist: Hubert Robert

Title: The Swing

Date: c. 1780

Medium: Oil on canvas

17.190.27

Robert was hired to create several pieces to decorate a house of a royal subjects. The Swing contains ten figures watching a girl swing being pulled by the man. The majority of the viewers are looking intently at the girl in the air and even the dog and statue in the painting have their heads towards her. The statue in the background was created by Robert and has his name engraved in the bottom. The people in the painting are all in nice clothes so viewers know they are of a higher social class. The men appear relaxed but the women seem to be distressed by the scene and the girl on the swing does not look like she is enjoying herself.

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Cot

Title: Springtime

Date: 1873

Medium: Oil on canvas

2012.575

Cot paints a picture of a man with a woman draped across him sitting closely on a swing. This romantic image is created with oil paints on canvas and titled Springtime which explains the lush green forest surrounding the swing. The woman is draped across the man and is facing outward. Although her face is clearly forward, her blue eyes are looking up towards the man she is with. The the pair is a “nubile couple” which means that they are created to look sexually attractive or the woman is mature and ready for marriage. The woman is created to look more angelic and godlike while the man looks like an average person.

Emotional Waters with Gustave Courbet.

Gustave Courbet described himself as the “proudest and most arrogant man of France” while he created art making people uncomfortable mid to late 1800’s.[1]  Courbet focused largely on landscapes containing water and did not want his emotions to seep through his work.  By grouping his works focused on nature together, it is easy for the viewer to feel a strong emotional connection with the oil paintings.  Although Gustave Courbet claims to paint void-of-emotion and imperfect scenes in nature, it is prevalent in his works containing bodies of water that he incorporates emotions into his scenes through formal composition and vast tonal range.  

Courbet’s use of light creates drama by drawing contrast between the sky, foreground, rocks, and water.  His intentions were not for viewers to feel emotion, but the contrast in tones throughout his work draw out an emotional reaction from the onlooker.  Through using drawn out brush strokes and soft details, the paintings seem to be moving during a decisive moment in time. The snapshot of a real moment in nature is presented, and the viewer is left to interpret how they feel about the scene, but not encouraged to by the artist himself.  This curation is meant to demonstrate that despite Courbet’s desire for realism and documentation, a strong emotional connection can be made with his water landscapes and a formal composition can be traced.

Gustave Courbet, A Brook in the Forest, unknown, Oil on Canvas, 67.212.

Even the title, A Brook in the Forest, shows how Courbet wanted his work to be purely what he saw and not emotionally charged.  However the viewer can find more in the painting than just a brook in a forest. His use of light creates a dark scene taking place full of mystery and wonder.  The dark shadows hide the true form of objects and it is hard to see through the reflection of the water. Some objects are distinct, but the softness with which he paints makes it hard to see everything in the frame.  When the viewer enters the composition, they become uncertain of what lies ahead and begin to question the truth of the scene.

Gustave Courbet, The Source of the Loue, 1864, Oil on Canvas, 29.100.122.

In The Source of the Loue, Courbet draws attention to the tonal range by using piercing whites contrasted by the dark hole which the water is seeping out from.  The water is rushing out of nothingness and the entire composition encompasses the cascading liquid. His use of darkness creates an ominous scene surrounding the light in the middle during a very real and live moment.  The painting is frozen, but if you stare at it long enough it begins to slowly move and direct your attention the water over and over.

Gustave Courbet, The Sea, 1865, Oil on Canvas, 22.27.1.

Through dark tones concentrated in the bottom half of the painting, Courbet illustrates a very intense scene of a storm about to roll in.  There is a glimmer of hope in the top third where the bright blue contrasts the dark clouds surrounding the fleeting light. It is easy for a viewer to be able to relate to the light taking on trials and hardship from nature against all odds.  It appears that the storm will be eternal as it stretches past the horizon and because increasingly darker.

Gustave Courbet, The Calm Sea, 1869, Oil on Canvas, 29.100.566.

The Calm Sea uses some of the the lightest colors seen in Courbet's work and focuses on a tranquil scene taking place on the beach.  The composition includes a shallow foreground over run by a sea of endless clouds encompassing the background. The coast and ocean only take up one third of the frame and the rest is focused on the sky.  Soft brush strokes are used to create fluff in the clouds and the waves gently move towards the shoreline. This creates a calmness in the scene and everything just feels right as is.

Gustave Courbet, Marine: The Waterspout, 1870, Oil on Canvas, 29.160.35.

The waves crash among the rock and a stark contrast is created from the brights of the waves and the shadows of the rock.  The rocks take on human form as they endure turmoil from a never ending storm. Formal composition is prevalent as the focal point becomes the rocks and the landscape is divided into three distinct sections.  Courbet’s brush strokes and use of red make the clouds appear dark and even evil as the fill the top of the frame. It is hard to imagine this being nothing but a documentation, as very strong emotions can be pulled from staring at the beautiful oil painting.

Gustave Courbet, River and Rocks, 1873-77, Oil on Canvas, 22.16.14.

The muddy tones in River and Rocks are used to depict a scene of water surrounded by a vast canyon of rock.  Grass, rock, and water blend together and are at times hard to separate from each other.  There is a stillness as everything seems to be at place where it is at and no colors protrude from another.  Everything blends smoothly including the blue sky. If Courbet wanted to depict what he actually saw, the sky would have stood out more from the shaded foreground.  He uses the rule of thirds to divide the water, rocks, and sky creating a formal composition.

Gustave Courbet, The Hidden Brook, 1873-77, Oil on Canvas, 22.16.13.

Most people would have probably walked past this scene, but Courbet saw something hiding in the frame.  Sometimes we overlook scenes in life that may mean something to someone else without realizing it. Courbet says that he doesn't want his audience to feel anything from his work, but it hard to think that way when viewing his pieces.  The shadows are very dark and the whole landscape seems to be at peace. The water creeps out from behind the large cliff and trickles slowly across the landscape. The frame is distinctly divided into zones with the green, water, and brighter sky.  Everything blends together and brush stokes create unity throughout the natural existing nature.

A Woman's Perspective

Impressionism can be considered one of the first truly modern artistic movements, particularly in painting. The movement began to develop in Paris in the 1860’s, but its influence would go on to impact artists all across Europe and the United States. Impressionist paintings refer to works produced between the 1860’s and the beginning of the twentieth century. Impressionists sought to accurately depict the effects of light and color upon a scene at a given time. Later figures in the movement such as Edgar Degas and Augusto Renoir depicted indoor scenes of various aspects of modern life. As educated men, the social access afforded to Degas and others was considerably greater than the opportunities given to the few female artists of the day. Therefore we often observe scenes such as bars, private dance lessons, and social gatherings from the perspective of the male artist. Female artists such as Mary Cassatt experienced the tension of desiring to gain professional acclaim for her work while being limited in the types of opportunities given to her. Cassatt often depicted life from the perspective of a woman, thus giving a unique picture into social decorum’s, familial life, and society. So it is that we often observe Cassatt and the tension that we observe about her wanting to be both a professional painter while maintaining certain social norms for women at the time.

Edouard Manet, Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, Oil on Canvas, Courtauld Gallery,

This painting was Manet’s last major work. It represents the bustling interior of one of the most prominent music halls and cabarets of Paris, the Folies-Bergère. The peculiarity of this work is that Manet set up at a bar and supposedly asked one of the barmaids to be his model. The mirror directly behind the barmaid offers a skewed and confusing reflection of what we, the viewer, perceive of the image. The barmaid’s image is shunted to the side and much of the scene distorted. Such was the tension Manet grappled with later in life: the balance between reality and illusion.

Edgar Degas, The Dance Class, 1874, Oil on canvas, 1987.47.1.

This work represent one of the most well know works Degas ever devoted to the theme of the dance. Some twenty-four women, ballerinas and their mothers, wait while a dancer executes an movement for her examination. Jules Perrot, a famous ballet master, conducts the class, and the scene is set in a rehearsal room similar to the Paris Opéra, which had recently burned to the ground in 1874. On the wall beside the mirror, a poster for Rossini’s Guillaume Tell pays tribute to the singer Jean-Baptiste Faure, who commissioned the picture and lent it to the 1876 Impressionist exhibition.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81, Oil on Canvas, The Phillips Collection, Acquired 1923.

The painting captures the idyllic scene where Renoir’s friends enjoy drinks and a meal at a restaurant overlooking the Seine in Paris. The setting is open, spacious, and exciting. The painting reflects some of the social change that was happening in Parisian culture in the late 19th century: the restaurant plays host to both men and women, artists, writers, critics, actors, and women of society. This would have been uncommon for the day and mirrors Renoir’s openness in the piece.

Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, 1880, Oil on Canvas, On display at Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, March 9, 2018 – July 23, 2018, 10.35.

Cassatt differed from her fellow Impressionists in her depiction of women at the Opera. The Opera was a place to escape and distract oneself while also being seen by one’s peers. Impressionists like Degas and Manet often depicted women in the opera boxes as objects on display. Cassatt casts her female figure in a very different role, for she peers intensely through her opera glasses at the row of seats across from her. In the background at upper left, a man is staring at her. The viewer, who sees both figures, completes the circle. Cassatt’s painting explores the very act of looking, breaking down the traditional boundaries between the observer and the observed, the audience  and the performer.

Mary Cassatt, Lady at the Tea Table, 1883–85, Oil on canvas. 23.101.

Like many Impressionist paintings, Lady at the Tea Tale shows a woman of the upper class at leisure, but it is more paradoxical in its portrayal, Cassatt mixes influences of Impressionism with her own interpretation of the role of women in the modern world as both professionals and keepers of the “spheres of femininity.” Cassatt packs a robust sense of a woman's personality and social standing into a small painting with relatively few details.  In it is depicted a commanding looking elderly woman seated behind a table set for tea with an elegant blue, white, and gold, Asian looking tea set. She is dressed luxuriously in lace and an expensive looking shawl, her hand is heavy with beautiful rings of gold, diamonds and other precious stones. Her face showing signs of aging, her under eyes slightly dark and sagging, her cheeks seem to hover on her face, and frown lines around her mouth and chin.

Mary Cassatt, Young Mother Sewing, 1900, Oil on Canvas, 29.100.48.

Preceding this work, circa 1890, Cassatt decided to redirect the focus of her work to mothers and children. In this effort she sought to depict the realities of child rearing and accurately portray life in the women from a woman’s perspective. This indeed is a realistic picture because the child looks to have thrown herself onto her mother’s lap ignorant of the sewing her mother is attempting to complete. Yet, her mama is not disturbed and remains tranquil: continuing to sew just as before.

New Portrayals of Women in 19th Century American Art

Throughout the 19^th Century, American art was beginning to come into it’s own while it’s artists looked for new ways to advance their craft and make it fresh and unique. One of the ways in which the artists working in America made this progression is through their depiction of women, which changed throughout the century.

The expanding opportunities in art allowed artists more creative freedom to paint everyday scenes, and, at a time when women were also experiencing more independence from their traditional roles, the two movements intertwined and the results are new portrayals of women in 19^th century American art as seen in this exhibit.

The works displayed here (ranging in date from 1801 to 1899) are prime examples of many of these changes. Each different creator had their own interpretation of how women might be portrayed in art, and their own way of communicating those ideas. The Music Lesson uses the theme of music to portray women, as do the Portrait of a Young Woman and The Shepherdess of the Alps. Others explore relationships to family or to men. Each artist found their own place in this movement, sharing ideas with each other while also exploring new avenues in portraying women.

Portrait of a Young Woman - 1801

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Portrait of a Young Woman - Mather Brown (1801)

Oil on canvas

Ascension #: 65.235

This first painting shows a woman sitting alone at a piano. Her white dress and pale skin represent purity and innocence, suggesting that most of her time has been spent indoors; maybe she hasn’t been allowed to experience much outside of the home.  The most important part of this piece is that she is not playing the piano. Instead, she is holding the music sheets open in front of her, suggesting an interest or desire in music, but for some reason the piano sits silently in the background.

The Shepherdess of the Alps (1812) 

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The Shepherdess of the Alps - Evelina Hull,  (1812) 

Silk embroidered with silk thread, watercolor

Ascension #: 39.126.1

This work is very distinct from the rest of the artworks in this display. It is the only medium that is not oil on canvas, instead using embroidery and watercolor. Again, music is a major subject of the object and adds a lot to it’s meaning. It is important to note that, much like the Portrait of a Young Woman, the woman is not making music. Instead, it is a young male piper sitting off to the side creating sound, not even facing the shepherdess. When viewing the display, viewers would notice how different this painting is, and wonder what else is distinct about this object.

The New Bonnet (1858)

The New Bonnet - Francis William Edmonds (1858) 

Oil on canvas, Ascension #: 1975.27.1

This painting displays a woman examining and celebrating a new item of clothing that she has acquired. There is a clear juxtaposition between the woman and her parents, and even from the girl on the left. Her father especially, is clearly in disapproval, and has a bottle on the mantelpiece. The mother also, is also visibly upset. The viewer would notice the disapproving essence of the parents, and think about why the woman feels completely content with her new bonnet, and not worried about her parent’s glances.

The Music Lesson (1870)

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The Music Lesson - John George Brown (1870) 

Oil on canvas, Ascension #: 21.115.3

The Music Lesson is the centerpiece of this exhibit. With its theme of music, it fits very nicely with the first two objects. The first one depicted a woman sitting in front of an instrument but not playing it. The Shepherdess of the Alps had a man and woman, with the man making the music. In The Music Lesson, both man and woman are playing together. This painting shows a quiet and subtle romance through its use of color and some restrained symbolism. The subject is romantic, but it is important to note that neither man nor woman appears to be the object of the romance, but are equal players in the courtship.

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Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes (1898)

Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes - Cecilia Beaux (1898)

Oil on canvas, Ascension #: 65.252

This portrait of a couple was painting near the end of the 19^th century, after many of the new ideas about portraying women had been explored. This painting of an older couple near the end of the century shows a new place of women in art through the positioning of the husband and wife. The wife is in front, and clearly the primary subject. She is dressed in bright colors, and has a pen in her hand. Her husband is behind her, in muted colors, almost fading into the background. The viewer would notice how prominent the woman is in this subject, especially when viewed after The Music Lesson, where the couple is in line with each other. 

Across the Room (1899)

Across the Room - Edmund Charles Tarbell (1899) Oil on canvas, 67.187.141

This final painting of the exhibit shows one woman reclining on a couch. At first glance, it might be simple to believe that Tarbell meant to portray this woman as lazy, with her reclined position on a couch in an empty room. What breaks that supposition is the framing of the scene. The woman is near the top of the frame, instead of being in the middle. The viewer would be looking up at the woman, instead of down or straight on. Instead of laziness, the viewer might suspect that the woman is idle because she has been busy with other things.