Cathy's Art Diary

New display at the Wallace Collection of “The Swing” by Fragonard which has been rehung after being cleaned. I did a wonderful series of talks on this picture recently to mark this rehang so was very excited to go and see it. It looks a lot brighter and clearer. The pink is much more distinct and I love the detail, shown here, of the roses in the foreground. I’d never really looked at the picture properly before, as it seems such a cliché, but it’s much interesting than at first glance. It does make you want to rush to a playground and have a go! There is a playfulness in it, even if we are also meant to be thinking about grown up philosophical subjects too. No closing date but recently redisplayed

Innovative series of five online talks from the Wallace Collection responding to the recent cleaning of “The Swing” by Fragonard. Yuriko Jackall , Curator of French Painting at the   Wallace Collection, chaired all five events which brought together artists and designers with thinkers to discuss aspects of the painting, the times it was painted in and ideas which still hold today. The title and idea had partly been suggested by the set and costume Simon Bejer is partly about thinking about who is looking at the collection. All the artists referenced going to the gallery and many had directly quoted the 18th century paintings there. The five subjects were the colour pink, identity, fashion, play and the idea of the Libertine. At first sight these seemed an odd collection of themes but they fit really well and led to discussion on a wide range of topics. It’s not a period of history that I know well and I learned a lot about it. I will see a lot more in these pictures in the fut...

Enlightening online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at the recent cleaning of Fragonard’s The Swing. Yuriko Jackall, a curator at the gallery talked us through what they already knew about the picture and what they discovered after the cleaning. The latter included realising the gentleman pushing the screen was older than they had assumed, finding a fountain with an embracing couple in the background at the top left-hand side and the fact that the man lying in the ground it pulling back the roses he is hiding in or had he fallen. She discussed who the mystery commissioner of the work may have been and the world for which it was created. I am not fond of Rococo work however from this, and a series of talks I have done since based on the painting I have a newfound appreciation of its depth even if I still find it a bit sugary. You can see a revolution coming!  

Very small exhibition at the Wallace collection bringing together two versions of this picture, one from their own collection and one from the Getty. They were probable painted in the same year and this was the first time they had been together since they had been in the studio. Conservation work for this exhibition has shown the Getty one to be the first as the under drawing shows signs of the composition changing whereas the other does not and shows more clarity in the finish. Reviews Guardian