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WATTEAU, ANTOINE (1684-1721)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 418 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WATTEAU, See also:ANTOINE (1684-1721) , See also:French painter, was See also:born in See also:Valenciennes, of humble Flemish origin. See also:Comte de See also:Caylus, his staunch friend of later years, and his first biographer, refers to Watteau's See also:father as a hard See also:man, strongly disinclined to accede to his son's wish to become a painter; but other accounts show him in a kinder See also:light—as a poor, struggling man, a tiler by See also:trade, who secured for his son the best possible See also:education. Certain it is that at the See also:age of fourteen Watteau was placed with Gerin, a mediocre Valenciennes painter, with XX VIII. 14whom he remained until 1702. It iS to be assumed that he learnt far more from the study of See also:Ostade's and See also:Teniers's paintings in his native See also:town than from his first See also:master's teaching. Not only in subject-See also:matter, but in their See also:general tonality, his earliest See also:works, like " La Vraie Gaiete," which was in the collection of See also:Sir See also:Charles See also:Tennant, suggest this See also:influence. Gerin died in 1702, and Watteau, almost penniless, went to See also:Paris, where he found employment with the See also:scene-painter Metayer. Things, however, went badly with his new master, and Watteau, broken down in See also:health and on the See also:verge of See also:starvation, was forced to See also:work in a See also:kind of factory where devotional pictures were turned out in wholesale See also:fashion. Three francs a See also:week and meagre See also:food were his See also:reward; but his See also:talent soon enabled him to paint the St See also:Nicolas, the copying of which was allotted to him, without having to refer to the See also:original. Meanwhile he spent his rare leisure See also:hours and the evenings in serious study, sketching and See also:drawing his impressions of types and : cenes. His drawings attracted the See also:attention of See also:Claude See also:Gillot, an artist imbued with the spirit of the See also:Renaissance, who after having successfully tried himself in the mythological and See also:historical genre, was just at that See also:time devoting himself to the characters and incidents of the See also:Italian See also:comedy. Gillot took Watteau as See also:pupil and assistant, but the See also:young man made such rapid progress that he soon equalled and excelled his master, whose See also:jealousy led to a See also:quarrel, as a result of which Watteau, and with him his See also:fellow-student and later pupil, See also:Lancret, severed his connexion with Gillot and entered about 1708 the studio of Claude See also:Audran, a famous decorative painter who was at that time keeper of the collections at the Luxembourg See also:Palace.

From him Watteau acquired his knowledge of decorative See also:

art and ornamental See also:design, the See also:garland-like See also:composition which he applied to the designing of screens, fans and See also:wall panels. At the same time he became deeply imbued with the spirit of See also:Rubens and See also:Paolo Veronese, whose works he had daily before hint at the palace; and he continued to work from nature and to collect material for his formal See also:garden backgrounds among the fountains and statues and stately avenues of the Luxembourg gardens. His chinoiseries and singeries date probably from the years during which he worked with Audran. Perhaps as a recreation from the routine of ornamental design, Watteau painted at this time " The Departing See also:Regiment," the first picture in his second and more See also:personal manner, in which the See also:touch reveals the influence of Rubens's technique, and the first of a See also:long See also:series of See also:camp pictures. He showed the See also:painting to Andean, who, probably afraid of losing so talented and useful an assistant, made light of it, and advised him not to See also:waste his time and gifts on such subjects. Watteau, suspicious of his master's motives, determined to leave him, advancing as excuse his See also:desire to return to Valenciennes. He found a purchaser, at the modest See also:price of 6o livres, in Sirois, the father-in-See also:law of his later friend and See also:patron Gersaint, and was thus enabled to return to the See also:home of his childhood. In Valenciennes he painted a number of the small camp-pieces, notably the " Camp-See also:Fire," which was again bought by Sirois, the price this time being raised to 200 livres; this is now in the collection of Mr W. A. Coats in See also:Glasgow. Two small pictures of the same type are at the Hermitage in St See also:Petersburg. Returning to Paris after a comparatively See also:short sojourn at Valenciennes, he took up his See also:abode with Sirois, and competed in 1709 for the Prix de See also:Rome.

He only obtained the second See also:

prize, and, determined to go to Rome, he applied for a See also:crown See also:pension and exhibited the two military pictures which he had sold to Sirois, in a See also:place where they were See also:bound to be seen by the academicians. There they attracted the attention of de la See also:Fosse, who, struck by the rare gifts displayed in these works, sent for Watteau and dissuaded him from going to See also:Italy, where he had nothing to learn. It was to a See also:great extent due to de la Fosse and to See also:Rigaud that Watteau was made an See also:associate of the See also:Academy in 1712, and a full member in 1717, on the completion of his diploma picture, " The Embarkment for See also:Cythera," now at the Louvre. A later, and even more perfect, version of the same subject is in the See also:possession of the See also:German See also:emperor. It is quite possible that the superb portrait of' Rigaud by Watteau n belonging to Mr Hodgkins, was painted in See also:acknowledgment of Rigaud's friendly See also:action. Watteau now went to live with See also:Crozat, the greatest private art See also:collector of his time, for whom he painted a set of four decorative panels of " The Seasons," one of which, " Summer," is now in the collection of Mr Lionel See also:Phillips. Crozat See also:left at his See also:death some 400 paintings and 19,000 drawings by the masters. It is easy to imagine how Watteau roamed among these treasures, and became more and more See also:familiar with Rubens and the great Venetians. In 1719 or 1720 the See also:state of his health had become so alarming that he went to See also:London to consult the famous See also:doctor See also:Richard See also:Mead. But far from benefiting by the See also:journey, he became worse, the London See also:fog and See also:smoke proving particularly pernicious to a sufferer from See also:consumption. On his return to Paris he lived for six months with his friend Gersaint, for whom he painted in eight mornings the wonderful signboard depicting the interior of an art dealer's See also:shop, which is now—cut into two parts—in the collection of the German emperor. His health made it imperative for him to live in the See also:country, and in 1721 he took up his abode with M. le Fevre at Nogent.

During all this time, as though he knew the near approach of the end and wished to make the best of his time, he worked with feverish haste. Among his last paintings were a " Crucifixion " for the cure of Nogent, and a portrait of the famous Venetian pastellist Rosalba Carriera, who at the same time painted her portrait of Watteau. His restlessness increased with the progress of his disease; he wished to return to Valenciennes, but the long journey was too dangerous; he sent for his pupil See also:

Pater, whom he had dismissed in a See also:fit of See also:ill-See also:temper, and whom he now kept by his See also:side for a See also:month to give him the benefit of his experience; and on the 18th of See also:July 1721 he died in Gersaint's arms. Watteau's position in French art is one of unique importance, for, though Flemish by descent, he was more French in his art than any of his French contemporaries. He became the founder —and at the same time the See also:culmination—of a new school which marked a revolt against the pompous decaying classicism of the See also:Louis XIV. See also:period. The vitality of his art was due to the rare See also:combination of a poet's See also:imagination with a See also:power of seizing reality. In his treatment of the landscape background and of the atmospheric surroundings of the figures can be found the germs of See also:impressionism. All the later theories of light and its effect upon the See also:objects in nature are foreshadowed by Watteau's fetes champetres, which give at the same time a characteristic, though highly idealized, picture of the artificiality of the See also:life of his time. He is the initiator of the Louis XV. period, but, except in a few rare cases, his paintings are entirely See also:free from the licentiousness of his followers Lancret and Pater, and even more of See also:Boucher and See also:Fragonard. During the last years of his life Watteau's art was highly esteemed by such See also:fine See also:judges as Sirois, Gersaint, the comte de Caylus, and M. de Julienne, the last of whom had a whole collection of the master's paintings and sketches, and published in 1735 the Abrege de la See also:vie de Watteau, an introduction to the four volumes of engravings after Watteau by See also:Cochin, Thomassin, Le Has, See also:Liotard and others. From the See also:middle of the 18th See also:century to about 1875, when Edmond de See also:Goncourt published his See also:Catalogue raisonne of Watteau's works and Caylus's discourse on Watteau delivered at the Academy in 1748, the See also:discovery of which is also due to the See also:brothers de Goncourt, Watteau was held in such slight esteem that the prices realized by his paintings at public See also:auction rarely exceeded X100. Then the reaction set in, and in 1891 the " Occupation according to Age " realized 5200 guineas at See also:Christie's, and " Perfect See also:Harmony " 3500 guineas.

At the See also:

Bourgeois See also:sale at See also:Cologne in 1904 " The See also:Village See also:Bride " fetched 5000. The finest collection of Watteau's works is in the possession of the German emperor, who owns as many as thirteen, all of the best period, and mostly from M. de Julienne's collection. At the Kaiser See also:Friedrich museum in See also:Berlin are two scenes from the Italian and French comedy and a fete champetre. In the See also:Wallace Collection are nine of his paintings, among them " Rustic Amusements," " The Return from the See also:Chase," " Gilles and his See also:Family," " The See also:Music Party," " A See also:Lady at her See also:Toilet " and" See also:Harlequin and See also:Columbine." The Louvre owns, besides the diploma picture, the " See also:Antiope," " The Assemblage in the See also:Park," " Autumn " " Indifference," " La Finette," " Gilles," " A Re-See also:union " and " The False Step," as well as See also:thirty-one original drawings. Other paintings of importance are at the See also:Dresden, Glasgow, See also:Edinburgh, St Petersburg and See also:Vienna galleries; and a number of drawings are to be found at the See also:British Museum and the Albertina in Vienna. Of the few portraits known to have been painted by Watteau, one is in the collection of the See also:late M. Groult in Paris.

End of Article: WATTEAU, ANTOINE (1684-1721)

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