Distance: 1 mile and small at home yoga practice
We art lovers in San Francisco are really excited to have Colin Bailey, formerly of the Frick, as our new Director of the Fine Arts Museums. One of his many areas of expertise is Jean-Honore Fragonard (Fr. 1732-1806), and today Bailey gave his first public lecture on same.
Except for Mr. Bailey, it is doubtful Ciwt - and most of the others in the large audience - would have been in attendance. Fragonard and Rococo do not call to many. But, Mr. Bailey was so charming, erudite and exuberant all at once that Ciwt is encouraged to become more acquainted with that short-lived time in France as well as Fragonard, that highly skilled and imaginative painter of enthusiastic, aristocratic hedonism.
Stay tuned - or avoid, personal taste depending. Meanwhile here we have the mistress of the young aristocrat who commissioned the painting being pushed on a swing by an older man (perhaps her husband or 'benefactor'), while she happily exposes herself to a young lover hiding in the bushes. Ah, yes, those Rococo decades.
Jean-Honore Fragonard (Fr. 1732-1806), The Swing (also known as The Happy Accidents of the Swing), ca. 1767, oil on canvas
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