Antoine Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau[n. 1] was born in October 1684[n. 2] in Valenciennes,[1] once an important town in the County of Hainaut which became sequently part of the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands until its secession to France following the Franco-Dutch War.5] Showing an early interest in painting, Jean-Antoine may have been apprenticed to Jacques-Albert Gérin,[19] a local painter, and his first artistic subjects were charlatans selling quack remedies on the streets of Valenciennes.[25][4] After a quarrel with Gillot, Watteau moved to the workshop of Claude Audran III, an interior decorator, under whose influence he began to make drawings admired for their consummate elegance.He found a purchaser, at the modest price of 60 livres, in a man called Sirois, the father-in-law of his later friend and patron Edme-François Gersaint, and was thus enabled to return to the home of his childhood.The subject of his hallmark painting, Pierrot (Gilles), is an actor in a white satin costume who stands isolated from his four companions, staring ahead with an enigmatic expression on his face.In contrast to the Rococo whimsicality and licentiousness cultivated by Boucher and Fragonard in the later part of Louis XV's reign, Watteau's theatrical panache is usually tinged with a note of sympathy, wistfulness, and sadness at the transience of love and other earthly delights.His drawings, typically executed in trois crayons technique, were collected and admired even by those, such as count de Caylus or Gersaint, who found fault with his paintings.According to Konody's critical assessment in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, in part, "in his treatment of the landscape background and of the atmospheric surroundings of the figures can be found the germs of Impressionism".A catalogue raisonné of Watteau's drawings has been compiled by Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, replacing the one by Sir Karl Parker and Jacques Mathey;[39] similar projects on his paintings are undertaken by Alan Wintermute[40] and Martin Eidelberg,[41] respectively.
Watteau (disambiguation)Rosalba CarrieraTrevisoValenciennesHabsburg NetherlandsNogent-sur-MarneFranceFrenchClaude GillotClaude Audran IIIPaintingdrawingEmbarkation for CytheraL'Enseigne de GersaintRococoJean de JulliennePierre CrozatEdme-François GersaintpainterdraughtsmanCorreggioRubensBaroquefêtes galantesItalian comedyballetCounty of HainautBurgundianFranco-Dutch WarWalloon descentPont Notre-Damegenre paintingsFrancesco Primaticcioschool of FontainebleauLouis XIVcommedia dell'artethéâtre de la foireComédie-Italienneinterior decoratorPalais du Luxembourgmagnificent series of canvasesPeter Paul RubensMarie de MediciVenetian masterslivresThe Embarkation for CytheraLouvreCytheraPrix de RomeAcademyCharles de La Fossereception piecepatronsbourgeoisPilgrimage to CytheraSchloss CharlottenburgBerlinPierrotFêtes venitiennesShop-sign of GersaintEdme François GersaintLas MeninasRichard MeadtuberculousLouis Joseph WatteauFrançois-Louis-Joseph WatteauMichael LeveyBoucherFragonardLouis XVVictorianWalter Patertrois crayonscount de Caylusdecorative artscostumepoetrypleatsEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh EditionImpressionismJ. M. W. TurnerBritish RegencyGoncourt brothersEdmond de Goncourtcatalogue raisonnéWorld of ArtJean FerréPierre RosenbergKarl ParkerMartin EidelbergThyssen-Bornemisza MuseumMarriage Contract and Country DancingPrado MuseumMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonSavoyard with a MarmotHermitage MuseumSt. PetersburgMezzetinoMetropolitan Museum of ArtNational GalleryThe Robber of the Sparrow's NestNational Galleries of ScotlandEdinburghGemäldegalerieActors of the Comédie-FrançaiseFêtes VénitiennesNationalmuseumDulwich Picture GalleryLa SurpriseGetty CenterLa BoudeuseCharlottenburg PalaceNational Gallery of ArtWashington, D.C.voiced labiodental fricativevoiced labio-velar approximantVoltaireFrederick the GreatMargravine of Brandenburg-BayreuthKarl WoermannRené HuygheGazette des Beaux-ArtsLevey, MichaelWells, John C.Jones, DanielRoach, Peter