Jean Antoine Watteau Giclée Fine Art Prints 2 of 3

Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) came to Paris at the age of eighteen and worked in the studio of Claude Gillot, famous for his scenes of Italian comedy. He then assisted Claude Audran III in decorating Parisian homes. He was patronized by the financier-collector Pierre Croza and had the opportunity to study his collection of Flemish and Italian drawings. In 1717, he was admitted to the Academy of Painting and Sculpture with the "Pilgrimage to Cythera", as a painter of "gallant feast". Watteau was the creator of this new genre: he painted many elegant, lovely pictures which - amidst verdant scenery - depict characters gathered for dancing, music and gallant encounters (Concert, Lovers' Delight). The painter is carried away by the world of the theatre, that of Gilles, melancholic and tender with his costume in subtle white and pink. Around the actor are clustered his companion characters in the spirit of commedia dell'arte - the Doctor on his donkey, Colombina, Maecenas in a red robe and another, a fourth artist with a hat cut like a cock's comb.

Watteau is in London for a while. In 1720 he took up his abode with his friend Gersin, a dealer in pictures on Notre Dame Bridge. In eight days he created for him the masterpiece - his final curtsy to youth and the fragility of life.