Antoine Watteau was a French painter and draughtsman of the early 18th century. The inventor of the genre of the “fêtes galantes” (courtship parties), he is one of the major figures of Rococo art, famous for his refined and melancholy scenes.
Antoine Watteau(1684 — 1721)
Antoine Watteau
Royaume de France
6 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1684 in Valenciennes, a town recently annexed to the Kingdom of France.
- Admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting in 1717 with “The Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera,” the work that established the genre of the fêtes galantes.
- Painter of “Pierrot” (formerly “Gilles”), around 1718–1719, one of his most famous works.
- Painted “The Shop Sign of Gersaint” around 1720, a late masterpiece created for an art dealer.
- Died prematurely of tuberculosis in 1721, at the age of 36.
Works & Achievements
His reception piece for the Academy, a masterpiece of the *fêtes galantes* depicting couples on the mythical island of love. Held at the Louvre.
A full-length portrait of an actor in the white costume of the *commedia dell'arte*, of a moving melancholy. Held at the Louvre.
His last great work, painted for the art shop of his friend the dealer. It shows the interior of a picture gallery in Paris.
A *fête galante* in which elegant figures dance and converse beneath an imaginary architecture, illustrating the art of living during the Régence.
A second, more sumptuous version of the Cythera theme, made for the collector Jean de Jullienne. Held in Berlin.
After his death, his friend Jullienne had his entire body of work engraved, spreading his style throughout Europe.
Anecdotes
Antoine Watteau was born in Valenciennes in 1684, a town that had become part of France only six years earlier, in 1678. The son of a roofer, he grew up in modest surroundings and left for Paris around 1702, almost penniless, to learn to paint.
To gain admission to the Royal Academy of Painting in 1717, Watteau submitted the painting *The Pilgrimage to Cythera*. The Academy, at a loss, created an entirely new category for him: that of “painter of fêtes galantes,” because his art fit into none of the official categories.
Watteau had an anxious and restless temperament: he often abandoned his paintings, gave some away to friends, and was forever changing lodgings. His biographer and friend, the art dealer Gersaint, described him as having a worried and solitary disposition.
Suffering from tuberculosis, Watteau traveled to London in 1719–1720 to consult a famous physician, but the damp climate worsened his illness. He died in 1721 at just 36 years old, in Nogent-sur-Marne.
Shortly before his death, Watteau painted a shop sign for the boutique of his friend, the dealer Gersaint, in just eight days. This *Shop Sign of Gersaint*, intended to hang outdoors, is today regarded as one of his masterpieces.
Primary Sources
He was of medium height and weak constitution; he had a lively and penetrating mind, lofty feelings... He was restless, dissatisfied with himself, hard to pin down.
Watteau could not bear constraint; he often left his works before finishing them, out of distaste or impatience.
Admitted as an academician on the basis of the painting depicting The Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera, a painter in the particular talent of the *fêtes galantes*.
Key Places
Town in northern France where Watteau was born in 1684, shortly after it became part of the kingdom.
Capital where Watteau trained, worked, and built his entire career from 1702 onward.
Institution that admitted him in 1717, inventing the genre of the “fêtes galantes” especially for him.
City where Watteau stayed in 1719–1720 to consult a doctor, but where the climate worsened his tuberculosis.
Town near Paris where Watteau died in 1721, at the age of 36.
Typical Objects
Watteau drew tirelessly using the three-chalk technique (sanguine, black chalk, white chalk), building up studies of faces, hands and poses that he would then reuse in his paintings.
A wooden board on which the artist mixes oil colours. Watteau used it to compose his characteristic delicate, pearly tones.
The loose white outfit of a commedia dell'arte character, immortalised in his famous painting “Pierrot” (or “Gilles”).
Musical instruments often featured in Watteau's fêtes galantes, where elegant couples play, dance and converse in gardens.
A large painted panel meant to hang in front of a shop. Watteau made one, which became a masterpiece, for Gersaint's art gallery.
An elegant women's gown with broad pleats falling down the back, known as “Watteau pleats” in his honour, so much did he love to depict these silky fabrics.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Daily Life
Morning
Watteau often began his days with drawing, his favorite activity. He filled his sketchbooks with studies in *trois crayons*, sketching passersby, faces and draperies that he would keep in reserve for his paintings.
Afternoon
In the afternoon, in his studio, he painted his small, refined compositions in oil. Impatient by nature, he sometimes abandoned a canvas in progress or gave it to a friend before he had finished it.
Evening
In the evening, Watteau frequented the circle of his art-loving friends and collectors, such as **Gersaint**, **Crozat** and **Jullienne**, who often gave him lodging and opened their rich collections of paintings for him to study.
Food
Like the well-off Parisians of his time, he shared meals of bread, soups, meats and wine. Of fragile health and consumptive, he nonetheless had a delicate appetite and a frail constitution.
Clothing
Watteau wore the clothes of an 18th-century man: justaucorps, waistcoat, breeches, stockings and a linen shirt. A passionate observer of fabrics, he rendered the shimmering silk of elegant gowns in his paintings.
Housing
With no fixed home and an unstable temperament, he moved frequently and often stayed with his patrons and collector friends, who placed a studio and their art galleries at his disposal.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Le Pèlerinage à l'île de Cythère
1717
Pierrot (dit Gilles)
vers 1718-1719
Les Plaisirs du bal
vers 1715-1717
L'Embarquement pour Cythère (version Berlin)
1718-1719
Gersaint et les estampes (recueil de Jullienne)
publié à partir de 1726
