scriptwriter's goof?


When White tells Evelyne about the swing, he says it was inspired by a painting of Watteau's.

The painting ('The Swing') is by Fragonard; there's no such picture by Watteau.

True, Watteau and Fragonard were both great inspirations for the arts of the 'gilded age'; but Frago's 'Swing' was in particular a famous picture.

I think it unlikely that White would have made such a goof; it likely came from the scriptwriter.
(Charles Bracket was an educated man...but of another age and milieu.)

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Good point, but there is also a "The Swing" painting by Watteau, at the Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Finland.

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thank you for pointing this out, lib8.

It appears in fact that Watteau painted several 'Swings': some known from engravings but long since lost, they were from series of panels to decorate salons. The picture to which you refer is often but not always attributed to Watteau.

I knew when I posted that Frago didn't invent the motif (a swing appears in some of Watteau famous large compositions and in other pre-Fragonard fĂȘtes-galantes pictures), but Fragonard's is the famous picture known as 'The Swing'. It also tells a story (second man in the bushes, slipper flying through the air...) which could be a sub-text for the film. [though maybe not more than 1% of the film's public would seize on this, or care?]

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