The Swing

Robert's The Swing (1777–79) at the Metropolitan Museum is one of his lighter, more Rococo-inflected works, depicting a young woman on a swing in an architectural garden setting that combines the playfulness of Fragonard with Robert's characteristic ruined architecture. The swing subject had been made famous by Fragonard's celebrated 1767 painting for Baron de Saint-Julien, and Robert's version participates in the same tradition of elegantly suggestive garden paintings for aristocratic private collections. The contrast between the playful human activity and the gravely contemplative ancient architecture creates the characteristic tension of Robert's best work: pleasure and melancholy coexisting in a single image.

Robert employs a light, decorative touch appropriate to the panel's function as interior decoration. The classical architecture is rendered with careful perspective while the figures and foliage are painted with looser, more spontaneous strokes. The palette of soft greens, warm stone colors, and blue sky creates an inviting Arcadian atmosphere.