Fanny Rabel's En el columpio alternatively titled The Gate, is a playful vignette of daily life in Mexico City. Much of her output during the 1950's focused on portraying the downtrodden, but this is one of the few paintings employing a bright palette and portraying the simple joys of childhood.
Rabel is considered the first modern female muralist in Mexico, but also worked in various other media including painting, engraving, drawing and ceramic sculpture. Born in Poland, her family moved to Paris in 1929 before settling in Mexico in 1936. She initially studied drawing and engraving at the Escuela Nocturna para Trabajadores, then continued her training at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura, y Grabado, Mexico City, in 1942.
She was one of four students, nicknamed "Los Fridos," who studied under Frida Kahlo at her home in Mexico City, known as the Casa Azul. Rabel apprenticed with the important Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and David A. Siqueiros, and completed numerous murals herself, including her most significant work La Ronda en el Tiempo, 1964 , located in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City.
