Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)
Daniele Svezia (University of Florence)
The French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) is widely considered a precursor of the Rococo style. Born in Valenciennes, he moved to Paris in 1702, where he trained under Claude Gillot and later worked with Claude III Audran, curator of the Luxembourg Palace’s Gallery. This period exposed him to Rubens’s expressive use of colour and allowed him to refine decorative motifs such as arabesques, which shaped his distinctive visual language. In 1712, he was admitted to the Académie Royale, which acknowledged the originality of his work by creating a new genre: the fête galante, defined as “an art characterised by festive or theatrical costumes, galant and champêtre scenes, in unusual landscapes” (Roland Michel 1984: 10–51). Though he died prematurely, his style remained emblematic of a refined, yet elusive, sensibility. His legacy extended beyond the visual arts: in The Liberal (1823), Horace Smith’s essay “A Sunday’s Fête at St. Cloud” evokes the cheerful atmosphere of a popular French festival in terms reminiscent of Watteau’s world. The narrator’s painterly description of middle- and lower-class revellers subtly echoes the artist’s ability to transform everyday life into scenes of poetic grace (The Liberal 1823: 141).
Works cited
Roland Michel, Marianne. Watteau: An Artist of the Eighteenth Century. Translated by Richard Wrigley, with additional translations by Jennifer Wanklyn. London, Trefoil Books, 1984.
Ultimo aggiornamento
22.01.2026