And in the very best of this peerless array you can sense Watteau becoming caught up in what he was doing and forgetting that he was creating a utilitarian motif for future use and drawing simply for pleasure. There is an image c.1715 of a young woman on a swing, seen from behind, that seems to still time. Clothes and hair are in black, hands and neck in red. She is no Fragonard avant la lettre but a haunting figure at once wistful and erotic. Her head is tilted downwards and there is no hint of a face to be seen. Nevertheless, in this gentle idler, so scurryingly captured, Watteau has portrayed not merely a girl in a reverie but rather just what reveries are for.

















