Antoine Watteau
Antoine Watteau | |
---|---|
Embarkation for Cythera, 1717–1718 L'Enseigne de Gersaint, 1720–1721 | |
Movement | Rococo |
Patron(s) |
Jean-Antoine Watteau (UK: /ˈwɒtoʊ/, US: /wɒˈtoʊ/,[2][3] French: [ʒɑ̃ ɑ̃twan vato]; baptised October 10, 1684 – died July 18, 1721)[4] was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens. He revitalized the waning Baroque style, shifting it to the less severe, more naturalistic, less formally classical, Rococo. Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of fêtes galantes, scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet.
Early life and training
Jean-Antoine Watteau
His drawings attracted the attention of the painter Claude Gillot, and by 1705 he was employed as an assistant to Gillot, whose work, influenced by those of Francesco Primaticcio and the school of Fontainebleau, represented a reaction against the turgid official art of Louis XIV's reign.[22][23][24] In Gillot's studio, Watteau became acquainted with the characters of the commedia dell'arte (which moved onto the théâtre de la foire following the Comédie-Italienne's departure in 1697), a favorite subject of Gillot's that would become one of Watteau's lifelong passions.[25][4]
After a quarrel with Gillot, Watteau moved to the workshop of
During this period Watteau painted The Departing Regiment, the first picture in his second and more personal manner, showing influence of Rubens, and the first of a long series of camp pictures. He showed the painting to Audran, who made light of it, and advised him not to waste his time and gifts on such subjects. Watteau determined to leave him, advancing as excuse his desire to return to Valenciennes. 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. In Valenciennes he painted a number of the small camp-pieces, notably the Camp-Fire, which was again bought by Sirois, the price this time being raised to 200 livres.[21]
Later career
In 1709, Watteau tried to obtain a one-year stay in
Watteau then went to live with the collector Pierre Crozat, who eventually on his death in 1740 left around 400 paintings and 19,000 drawings by the masters. Thus Watteau was able to spend even more time becoming familiar with the works of Rubens and the Venetian masters.[29] He lacked aristocratic
Watteau's final masterpiece, the
Watteau alarmed his friends by a carelessness about his future and financial security, as if foreseeing he would not live for long. In fact he had been sickly and physically fragile since childhood. In 1720, he travelled to London, England, to consult Dr. Richard Mead, one of the most fashionable physicians of his time and an admirer of Watteau's work. However, London's damp and smoky air offset any benefits of Dr. Mead's wholesome food and medicines. Watteau returned to France, spending six months with Gersaint,[29] and then spent his last few months on the estate of his patron, Abbé Haranger, where he died in 1721, perhaps from tuberculous laryngitis, at the age of 36. The Abbé said Watteau was semi-conscious and mute during his final days, clutching a paint brush and painting imaginary paintings in the air.[33]
His nephew, Louis Joseph Watteau, son of Antoine's brother Noël Joseph Watteau (1689–1756), and grand nephew, François-Louis-Joseph Watteau, son of Louis, followed Antoine into painting.
Critical assessment and legacy
Little known during his lifetime beyond a small circle of his devotees, Watteau "was mentioned but seldom in contemporary art criticism and then usually reprovingly".[34] Sir Michael Levey once noted that Watteau "created, unwittingly, the concept of the individualistic artist loyal to himself, and himself alone".[35] If his immediate followers, Lancret and Pater, would depict the unabashed frillery of aristocratic romantic pursuits, Watteau in a few masterpieces anticipates an art about art, the world of art as seen through the eyes of an artist. 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.[36] Famously, the Victorian essayist Walter Pater wrote of Watteau: "He was always a seeker after something in the world, that is there in no satisfying measure, or not at all."[37]: 414
Watteau was a prolific draftsman. 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.[4] In 1726 and 1728, Jean de Jullienne published suites of etchings after Watteau's drawings, and in 1735 he published a series of engravings after his paintings, The Recueil Jullienne.[4] The quality of the reproductions, using a mixture of engraving and etching following the practice of the Rubens engravers, varied according to the skill of the people employed by Jullienne, but was often very high. Such a comprehensive record was hitherto unparalleled.[4] This helped disseminate his influence round Europe and into the decorative arts.
Watteau's influence on the arts (not only painting, but the
In 1984 Watteau societies were created in Paris, by Jean Ferré, and London, by Dr. Selby Whittingham. A major exhibition in Paris, Washington and Berlin commemorated the 1984 tercentenary of his birth. Since 2000 a Watteau centre has been established at Valenciennes by Professor Chris Rauseo. 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.[citation needed]
Gallery
-
Pierrot Content, c. 1711–1712, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.[42]
-
La Perspective (View through the Trees in the Park of Pierre Crozat), c. 1715, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
-
St. Petersburg
-
Mezzetino, c. 1717–1720, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
-
Pierrot, c. 1718–1719, Louvre, Paris
-
Quellnymphe, c. 1718, private collection
-
The Love Song, c. 1717, National Gallery, London
-
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
-
The Dance, c. 1716–1718, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
-
Actors of the Comédie-Française, between 1711–1718, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
-
Fêtes Vénitiennes, c. 1718–1719, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
-
The Love Lesson, c. 1716–1717, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
-
Les Plaisirs du Bal, c. 1717, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
-
La Surprise, c. 1718, Getty Center, Los Angeles
-
La Boudeuse, c. 1715–1718, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg[44]
-
Pilgrimage to Cythera, c. 1718–1719,Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin
-
The Italian Comedians, c. 1719–1721, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
-
L'Enseigne de Gersaint, c. 1720–1721, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin
-
Ceres (Summer), c. 1717–1718, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
Notes
- ^ It is generally agreed that Watteau was the Jean-Antoine Watteau baptised on October 10, 1684, in Valenciennes at the Eglise de Saint-Jacques.[10] However, it has been suggested by Michel Vangheluwe in 1984 that the painter could be the Antoine Watteau born on May 6, 1676, eight years before the traditional date.[11][12]
- ^ Jean-Philippe Watteau and Michelle Lardenois, married on January 7, 1681, had four sons: Jean-François (b. 1682), Jean-Antoine, Antoine Roch (1687–1689), and Noël Joseph (1689–1758).[13]
- ^ Contemporary authors disputed if Watteau could be considered as a Frenchman, given his origin from a recently seized region. In The Temple of Taste, Voltaire described Watteau as a Flemish artist;[14] similarly, Frederick the Great labeled Watteau and Nicolas Lancret as "French painters of the school of Brabant" in a letter to his sister, the Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.[15][16] Nonetheless, later authors, such as Karl Woermann[17] and René Huyghe,[18] define Watteau as a Walloon.
- ^ At least one case of such behavior was documented; in 1690, Jean-Philippe Watteau was charged of having broken the leg to Abraham Lesne, burgher.[13]
- OCLC 887046528.
References
- ^ ISBN 0300064942.
- ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
- ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
- ^ (subscription needed).
- ^ Camesasca 1971, p. 83.
- OCLC 159955388– via Google Books.
- ISSN 0779-1658– via Google Books.
- .
- ^ Grasselli, Rosenberg & Parmantier 1984, pp. 15–28, "Chronology".
- ^ Grasselli, Rosenberg & Parmantier 1984, p. 16.
- ISBN 2852030381.
- ^ Michel 2008, p. 30.
- ^ a b Grasselli, Rosenberg & Parmantier 1984, p. 17.
- OCLC 83543415– via the Internet Archive.
Vateau eft un peintre flamand qui a travaillé à Paris, où il est mort il y a quelques années. Il a réussi dans les petites figures qu'il a dessinées & qu'il a très-bien grouppées; mais il n'a jamais rien fait de grand, il en était incapable.
- ^ Frederick II of Prussia (1856). "72. A La Margrave de Baireuth (Ruppin, 9 novembre 1739)". Oeuvres de Frédéric Le Grand (in French). Vol. 27. Berlin: R. Decker. p. 75 – via the Internet Archive.
La plupart de mes tableaux sont de Watteau ou de Laucret, a tous deux peintres français de l'éeole de Brabant.
- ^ Grasselli, Rosenberg & Parmantier 1984, pp. 505, 548.
- OCLC 1045561032– via the Internet Archive.
In Valenciennes geboren, das Flandern damals erft vor kerzem an Frankreich verloren hatte, war Watteau von Haus aus Wallone.
- OCLC 1147729820– via the Internet Archive.
Watteau was a Frenchman, but a Frenchman of recent vintage, for it was only in 1678, six years before he was born, that Valenciennes became French under the Treaty of Nijmegen. He was thoroughly French, for the province of Hainaut had always been French-speaking and culturally oriented to France. Watteau was not a Fleming, as his contemporaries liked to call him; he was a Walloon.
- ISBN 3-598-22792-2.
Alan Wintermute, a Christie's specialist based in New York who is currently writing the catalogue raisonné of Watteau's paintings, was able to retrace its history from the beginning down to the middle of the 19th century.
Bibliography
- OCLC 143069– via the Internet Archive.
- Crow, Thomas E. (1985). Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris. New Haven; London: Yale University Press. OCLC 1200566051– via the Internet Archive.
- Dacier, Émile; Vuaflart, Albert; Herold, Jacques (1921–1929). Jean de Julienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIII-e siècle (in French). Paris: M. Rousseau. Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 available via the Heidelberg University Library repository
- Dormandy, Thomas (2000). The White Death: the History of Tuberculosis. New York University Press.
- OCLC 1048224230– via the Internet Archive.
- Grasselli, Margaret Morgan; OCLC 557740787– via the National Gallery of Art archive.
- Hind, Charles Lewis (1910). Watteau. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack – via the Internet Archive.
- OCLC 556662493– via the Internet Archive.
- Konody, Paul George (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 417–418.
- OCLC 1036855531– via the Internet Archive.
- Mauclair, Camille (1906). Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Duckworth & Co – via the Internet Archive.
- Michel, Christian (2008). Le "célèbre Watteau" (in French). Genève: Droz. OCLC 1158803919.
- Mollett, John William (1883). Watteau. Illustrated Biographies of the Great Artists. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. OCLC 557720162– via the Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0-307-38594-9.
- OCLC 729123867– via the Internet Archive.
- Plax, Julie Anne (2000). Watteau and the Cultural Politics of Eighteenth-Century France. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 803847893.
- Plomp, Michiel; Sonnabend, Martin (2016). Watteau: Der Zeichner (exhibition catalogue) (in German). München: Hirmer. ISBN 978-3-941399-66-2.
- Posner, Donald (1984). Antoine Watteau. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. OCLC 10736607– via the Internet Archive.
- Roland Michel, Marianne (1984). Watteau: an Artist of the Eighteenth Century. London: Trefoil. OCLC 1302554747– via the Internet Archive.
- Roseberg, Pierre, ed. (1984). Vies anciennes de Watteau. Paris: Hermann. ISBN 2-7056-5985-4.
- Rosenberg, Pierre & Prat, Louis-Antoine (1996). Antoine Watteau: catalogue raisonné des dessins (in French). Paris: Gallimard-Electa. OCLC 463981169.
- Rosenberg, Pierre; Prat, Louis-Antoine & Eidelberg, Martin (2011). Watteau: The Drawings (exhibition catalogue). London: Royal Academy of Arts. OCLC 740683643.
- Schneider, Pierre (1967). The World of Watteau. New York: OCLC 680174683– via the Internet Archive.
- Sheriff, Mary D., ed. (2006). Antoine Watteau: Perspectives on the Artist and the Culture of His Time. Newark: University of Delaware. OCLC 185456942.
- Staley, Edgcumbe (1902). Watteau and His School. London: George Bell and Sons – via the Internet Archive.
- Stein, Perrin (October 2003). "Antoine Watteau (1684–1721)" (essay). Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- Vidal, Mary (1992). Watteau's Painted Conversations: Art, Literature, and Talk in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France. New Haven, London: Yale University Press. OCLC 260176725.
- Walsh, Linda (1999). "Subjects, Society, Style: Changing Evaluations of Watteau and His Art". In Barker, Emma; Webb, Nick; Woods, Kim (eds.). The Changing Status of the Artist. Art and Its Histories. Vol. 2. New Haven, London: Yale University Press. pp. 220–248. OCLC 1148191287– via the Internet Archive.
- The Watteau Society Bulletin, London.
- Martin Eidelberg, watteauandhiscircle.org
External links
Media related to Antoine Watteau at Wikimedia Commons
- 40 artworks by or after Antoine Watteau at the Art UK site
- Alphabetical list of accepted paintings and copies at A Watteau Abecedario
- The Rococo and Watteau
- www.Jean-Antoine-Watteau.org 89 works by Antoine Watteau
- Watteau paintings at the Web Gallery of Art
- Bell, Julian (February 12, 2009). "The Pleasure of Watteau". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
- Works by Watteau in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
- The Watteau Abecedario http://watteau-abecedario.org/default.htm