Swingers in the Jungle

Marianne North (1830-1890), Jane’s friend, was a botanist and artist. But, when health problems prohibited her from travelling, Jane offered to swing around the jungle to collect plants specimens for her.

In her haste to help out, Jane forgot to bring some rope. So, once in the jungle, she used lianas, high climbing woody vines that Tarzan and the other Jane used to swing on, too.

Jane had enthusiasm but no experience when it came to vine swinging. But she quickly learned that the tension of her own body hanging on the vine was what made it possible for her to swing back and forth.

Learning how to control tension and gravity had transformed Jane into a swinger.

Swings for the Rococo

Marie-Anne Gérard (1745-1823) was born in Grasse, the same town where Grenouville of Patrick Suskind’s Perfume became a mass murderer. Marie-Anne enjoyed drawing and studied with Jean-Honoré Fragonard. And, as it often happens, the student fell in love with the teacher and the teacher with the student. Fragonard and Marie-Anne were married in 1769 and, although Marie-Anne was a talented miniaturist, she had to give up her art to take care of kids and household chores. In 1778, her 14-year-old sister, Marguerite, came to live with them and became Fragonard’s assistant.

Although Marie-Anne had made many exceptional miniature portraits, they were often accredited to her husband.

The French Revolution exiled or guillotined many of the aristocrats who’d been clients of Jean-Honoré Fragonard. This provoked Fragonard to leave Paris with his family and go back to his point of departure, Grasse.

Jane had been much intrigued by Fragonard’s painting “The Swing” (“l’Escarpolette”) quite entertaining andd decided to use her rope to make a swing for herself.

To swing is to fluctuate back and forth as if trying to decided where to go.

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(“Jane’s Rope” ⓒ 2024)

Related:

The Power of a Gaze and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun + Guillotined Styles, Charlotte Corday kills Marat +

“The Swing” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard – “L’Escarpolette” Painting +

Marguerite Gérard: A Teenage Artist in Fragonard’s Studio +

The Victorian Gentlewoman Who Documented 900 Plant Species +

LIANAS AND CLIMBING PLANTS OF THE NEOTROPICS +

Jean-Honoré-Fragonard won the Prix de Rome, a scholarship to the French Academy in Rome