A little more ... "I confess,M.Doyen said to me,that this proposition,which i wouldn't have expected,considering the character of the picture that led to it,perplexed me and left me speechless for a moment.i collected myself,however,enough to say to him almost at once:"ah monsieur,it is necessary to add to the essentail idea of your picture by making madame's shoes fly into the air and having some cupids catch them."doyen did not accept the commission,however,and passed it on to fragonard.the identity of the patron is unknown,though he was at one time thought to have been the baron de saint-julien,the receiver general of the french clergy,which would have explained the request to include a bishop pushing the swing.this idea as well as that of having himself and his mistress portrayed was evidently dropped by the patron,whoever he may have been.the picture was depersonalized and,due to fragonard's extremely sensuous imagination,became a universal image of joyous, carefree sexuality.
The theme is that of love and the rising tide of passion,as intimated by the sculptural group in the lower centre of the picture.(dolphins driven by cupids drawing the water-chariot of venus symbolize the impatient surge of love.) beneath the girl on the swing,lying in a great bush,a tangle of flowers and foliage,is the young lover,gasping with anticipation.the bush is,evidently,a private place as it is enclosed by little fences.but the youth has found his way to it.