Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:
Rococo
Date and Place of Birth:
(Baptism) October 10, 1684, Valenciennes, France
Life:
Watteau elevated to visual poetry the already lofty art of the Rococo period with his oil scenes of courtly love and elegant society festivities. His work is characterized by having many layers of (mostly transparent) colors in an array of pleasant tones. The happy feel of his paintings made for a poignant contrast to his personal life, which was miserably lonely and punctuated by frequent illness. Watteau's output was terminated by his early death.
Important Works:
- Gilles and his Family, 1716
- Embarkation for Cythera, 1717-19
- Mezzetin, 1717-19
- L'Enseigne de Gersaint, 1720
Date and Place of Death:
July 18, 1721, Nogent-sur-Marne, France
Sources and Further Reading
- Borsch-Supan, Helmut. Antoine Watteau 1684-1721
(Masters of French Art).
Koln : Konemann, 2001.
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- Plax, Julie Anne. Watteau and the Cultural Politics
of Eighteenth-Century France.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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- Posner, Donald. Antoine Watteau.
Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1984.
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- Vidal, Mary. Watteau's Painted Conversations: Art, Literature,
and Talk in Seventeenth- And Eighteenth-Century France.
New Haven and London : Yale University Press, 1992.
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- Zeri, Federico; Dolcetta, Marco. Watteau:
The Embarkment for Cythera.
Richmond Hill : NDE Publishing, 2000.
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