Like all famous works of art, The Swing has, with time, taken on a life of its own. The painting has literally travelled from Paris to London, from Fragonard’s studio to the walls of Hertford House. Meanwhile, the composition of The Swing – the playful image of a young woman in a ruffled pink dress swinging toward her young admirer – has voyaged even further afield. Aspects of the painting have been replicated on fashion runways, reproduced on the silver screen and cited in other works of art.

Use the navigation buttons at the top of the page to learn about some of these afterlives and the impact they have had. Gathered here are a series of pieces that consider The Swing’s long reach, the shifting ways in which it can be interpreted and its ongoing influence on fashion and the evolving history of art. Also presented here are the recorded films of our online talk series Swing Time: Serendipitous Conversations about the Rococo, hosted by the Wallace Collection (November–December 2021), in which artists and practitioners consider what The Swing means to them.