A Game of Horse and Rider

This painting is a pendant of A Game of Hot Cockles. The pendants were meant to be installed in boiseries as part of a larger decorative program. They are equal in size and have similar colour schemes and compositions, and their subjects are complementary; each focuses on richly verdant gardens in which groups of figures have gathered to enjoy games in the outdoors.

The two games depicted in the pendants were common in Fragonard's time. In Horse and Rider, the players have divided into two teams, one acting as a multilegged "horse," bracing itself against a tree; the second team consists of "riders" who run and leap, one by one, onto the back of the "horse." Once they are all aboard, the horse team tries to shake them off.

The game is played in a garden which is natural, with no signs of human manipulation; its principal motif is a gnarled and twisted tree.

The pendants owe a debt to Oudry, whose designs for a tapestry cycle on the theme of "Amusements champêtres" include representations of Horse and Rider and Hot Cockles that are closely related to Fragonard's compositions.