“I want you to depict Madame on a swing that the bishop swings. Well, place me on the canvas so that I can see the legs of this charming creature!” said Baron Saint-Julien, one of the richest financiers in France, to the artist Gabriel François Doyen. And subtly hinted that the image of Madame must necessarily depict his mistress. And the artist was like “ew! I don’t draw such things” and refused. Said that such vulgarity perfectly draws Jean Honoré Fragonard.

This painting became the calling card of not only Fragonard, but of the entire Rococo era. The moral of this fable is: to every subject its own artist! The full title of the painting, by the way, is The Happy Accidents of a Swing.