Jean-Antoine Watteau Paintings
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Jean-Antoine Watteau Biography

A French rococo artist whose charming and graceful Watteau paintings show his interest in theater and ballet, Jean-Antoine Watteau is probably best known for his fetes gallants. These romantic and idealized scenes depict elaborately costumed ladies and gentlemen at play in fanciful outdoor settings.

Jean-Antoine Watteau was born on Oct. 10, 1684, in Valenciennes, France. In 1702 he traveled to Paris, where he supported himself by turning out religious pictures and copying the Jean-Antoine Watteau paintings of popular Dutch artists. In 1704 Jean-Antoine Watteau began studying with Claude Gillot. Gillot, who designed and executed scenery for the stage, passed on to Watteau his love of the Italian theater and the characters from the commedia dell'arte.
In 1708 Jean-Antoine Watteau began working with Claude Audran, who had the care of the treasures at the Luxembourg Palace. This collection included a group of scenes from the life of Marie de' Medici painted in the early 1600s by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens's influence can also be seen in Watteau's work. In 1709-10 Watteau returned to Valenciennes, where Jean-Antoine Watteau executed a series of military scenes. In the years 1710-12 Watteau Antoine painted the first of three versions of the myth of Cythera, the island of love for which pilgrims embark but never arrive. The Jean-Antoine Watteau paintings represented impossible dreams, the revenge of madness on reason and of freedom on moral rules.
Jean-Antoine Watteau returned to Paris and in 1715 was befriended by Pierre Crozat, a rich financier and art collector who owned a splendid collection of Flemish and Italian oil on canvas and who admired Watteau paintings. Watteau lived for a time in the residence of Crozat, but after a while Jean-Antoine Watteau left to live in seclusion. This began the period of major Jean-Antoine Watteau paintings, including the fetes galantes.
By 1719 Jean-Antoine Watteau was suffering from tuberculosis. That year he traveled to London to see a noted physician, Richard Mead, for whom he painted The Italian Comedians. In 1720 Jean-Antoine Watteau returned to Paris and stayed with his friend E.F. Gersaint, an art dealer. For him Watteau Antoine did Enseigne de Gersaint, an oil on canvas of the interior of Gersaint's shop intended for use as a signboard. Watteau's health continued to fail, and he moved to Nogent-sur-Marne just east of Paris, where Watteau Antoine died on July 18, 1721.
The Jean-Antoine Watteau paintings and his fellow rococo artists Francois Boucher and Jean-Honore Fragonard fell from favor in the late 1700s. his oil painting on canvas was not fully appreciated again until the mid-1800s.
Pierrot (also known as Gilles)
c. 1718-19; Oil on canvas; 184 x 149 cm; Musée du Louvre, Paris
One of the few things we can be sure about, in this famous but enigmatic painting, is the fact that Gilles is a Pierrot. Jean-Antoine Watteau may have painted it as a sign for the café run by the former actor, Belloni, who made his name as a Pierrot. The model, a friend or another actor, is unknown. Standing with his arms dangling at his sides, with a dreamy, naive look on his face, the moonstruck Pierrot stands out monumentally and idiosyncratically against a leafy Italianate background. At the foot of the mound, reminiscent of a fairground stage, four half-hidden figures--the Doctor on his donkey, Léandre, Isabelle and the Capitaine--contribute to the singularity of the composition and the poetic drama.
Les Charmes de la vie (The Delights of Life)
Oil on canvas, 69 x 90 cm; The Wallace Collection, London
Les Charmes de la vie (The Delights of Life; detail)
Oil on canvas, 69 x 90 cm; The Wallace Collection, London
Le Faux pas (The Misstep)
Oil on canvas, 40 x 31.5 cm; Musée du Louvre, Paris
Mezzetin
Sous un habit de Mezzetin (In Mezzetin's Costume)
Oil on canvas, 28 x 21 cm; The Wallace Collection, London
The Perspective
Oil on canvas; 46.9 x 56.7 cm; Museum of Fine Art, Boston
Pilgrimage to Cythera
Oil on canvas; 129 x 194 cm; Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin
Pilgrimage to Cythera (detail)
Oil on canvas; 129 x 194 cm; Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin
Plaisirs d'amour (The Pleasures of Love)
Oil on canvas, 61 x 75 cm; Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
Reunion en plein air (Meeting in the Open Air)
Oil on canvas, 60 x 75 cm; Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
Voulez-vous triompher des Belles ? (Do You Want to Succeed with Women ?)