(1684?C1721). French painter of Flemish descent, b. Valenciennes. Until 1704 poverty forced him to work in the shops of mediocre artists, where he produced genre and devotional subjects. In 1704?C8 he studied in the studio of Claude Gillot, an adept painter of scenes of theatrical life, which later became the subject of some of Watteau's finest paintings, such as Love in the Italian Theatre and Love in the French Theatre (both: Berlin). In 1708?C9 Watteau worked with the decorator Claude Audran. Watteau attracted the attention of eminent patrons in his last years, including the comte de Caylus, his biographer, and in 1717 he was made a full member of the Acad??mie royale. The Embarkation for Cythera (1717; Louvre) is characteristic of his art; it is a delicate, courtly fantasy, represented in warm and shimmering pastel tones that place him among the great colorists of all time. A lyric, Giorgionesque quality pervades his airy, gay, and sensuous scenes, which have a poignancy that none of his followers attained. Out of the most fleeting aspects of life he created an enduring and individual art. His exquisite paintings influenced fashion and garden design in the 18th cent. Other outstanding works include Gilles (Louvre), Perspective (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston), Mezzetin (Metropolitan Mus.), and Gersaint's Shop Sign (1719; Berlin).   Related Paintings of WATTEAU, Antoine :. | Gilles and his Family | The Dance | en rokokodam | L Enseigne de Gersaint | Die italienische Komodie |
Related Artists:
John Scarlett Davies
Australian Painter, 1864-1939
Charles Angrand
French Pointillist Painter, 1854-1926.French painter. He was trained at the Acad?mie de Peinture et de Dessin in Rouen, where he won prizes. Although he failed to gain entry to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Angrand began to win a controversial local reputation for canvases in a loosely Impressionist manner. In 1882 he secured a post as a schoolteacher at the Coll?ge Chaptal in Paris. With this security he was able to make contacts in progressive artistic circles, and in 1884 he became a founder-member of the Salon des Ind?pendants. His paintings of this period depict rural interiors and kitchen gardens, combining the broken brushwork of Monet and Camille Pissarro with the tonal structure of Bastien-Lepage (e.g. In the Garden, 1884; priv. col., see 1979 exh. cat., p. 27).
Jean Honore Fragonard
1732-1806 French Jean Honore Fragonard Locations French painter. He studied with François Boucher in Paris c. 1749. He subsequently won a Prix de Rome, and while in Italy (1756 ?C 61) he traveled extensively and executed many sketches of the countryside, especially the gardens at the Villa d Este at Tivoli, and developed a great admiration for the work of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In 1765 his large historical painting Coresus Sacrifices Himself to Save Callirhoë was purchased for Louis XV and won Fragonard election to the French Royal Academy. He soon abandoned this style to concentrate on landscapes in the manner of Jacob van Ruisdael, portraits, and the decorative, erotic outdoor party scenes for which he became famous (e.g., The Swing, c. 1766). The gentle hedonism of such party scenes epitomized the Rococo style. Although the greater part of his active life was passed during the Neoclassical period, he continued to paint in a Rococo idiom until shortly before the French Revolution, when he lost his patrons and livelihood.