Canvas 51 x 76 1/2''(129 x 194 cm)Reception picture for the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture 1717 Collection of the Academie Royale INV
Painting ID:: 20667
Jean-Antoine Watteau Canvas 51 x 76 1/2''(129 x 194 cm)Reception picture for the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture 1717 Collection of the Academie Royale INV The Embarkation for Cythera (mk05) 1684-1721
Antoine Watteau Art Locations
He is best known for his invention of a new genre, the fete galante, a small easel painting in which elegant people are depicted in conversation or music-making in a secluded parkland setting (see under FETE CHAMPETRE). His particular originality lies in the generally restrained nature of the amorous exchanges of his characters, which are conveyed as much by glance as by gesture, and in his mingling of figures in contemporary dress with others in theatrical costume, thus blurring references to both time and place.
Watteau work was widely collected during his lifetime and influenced a number of other painters in the decades following his death, especially in France and England. His drawings were particularly admired. Documented facts about Watteau life are notoriously few, though several friends wrote about him after his death (see Champion). Of over two hundred paintings generally accepted as his work
