William J. Allingham after Jean-Baptiste Pater, The Swing, 1922

Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695-1736) was born in Valenciennes and studied under Antoine Watteau. He made his name with fêtes galantes, scenes of elegant company at leisure in parkland. In the 1920s the English engraver William J. Allingham made a series of signed colour stipple engravings after Pater for the Museum Galleries, London.

A young woman swings from a broken tree while a second figure looks on from the shadows. Below, ladies in silk sit on the grass with their admirers, and a child holds out a hand to a small dog. A cart and distant figures cross the open country to the right. The composition appears to follow Pater's upright The Swing (La conversation intéressante), about 1730-33, in the Wallace Collection, London.

Colour stipple engraving, signed in pencil ‘William J. Allingham’ in the lower margin, with a small blindstamp lower left. Lettered in the plate ‘Published by The Museum Galleries, 26 Museum Street, London, W.C. Copyright 1922’. Titled on the reverse ‘The Swing, after J. B. Pater’. In a washline mount and a gilt frame with applied corner ornaments.