La Gimblette

A gimblette is a small ring-shaped biscuit, and that is what the girl is balancing on her toes for the little dog. Fragonard painted this around 1770 for the private cabinets of wealthy Parisians who liked their pictures witty and a bit risque. This was the taste of the last years of the old regime, playful and light, the same world that produced his famous Swing. Within two decades that whole culture of aristocratic pleasure would be swept away by revolution and a colder, sterner fashion in art. He kept the handling loose and quick, the pink curtains and yellow silk barely more than suggestions. No version of this picture is signed, and no one is sure how many he made.