'The Swing' comes from a set of four (with P383, P397 and P400), each of which was accompanied by a sentimental poem by Charles Moraine explaining the amorous subject matter of the picture. The verses which accompany 'The Swing' draw a contrast between the lady inclined to love seated on the ground and the ambivalent attitude of the lady on the swing. The pictures may possibly be identified with the pastoral scenes attributed to Lancret which decorated the reverse of a screen bought by the 4th Marquess of Hertford at the Prouteau de Montlouis sale in 1851. The same screen incorporated four of Boucher’s mythological paintings in The Wallace Collection (see Boucher P429, P438, P444 and P432), and was believed in the nineteenth century to have belonged to Madame de Pompadour.