Collection: Jean Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens. He revitalized the waning Baroque style, shifting it to the less severe, more naturalistic, less formally classical, Rococo.

Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of fêtes galantes, scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet.

Claude Gillot and Claude Audran III taught him. His work was influenced by Peter Paul Rubens. His best-known works include Pierrot, Nymph and Satyr, The Shop Sign of Gersaint, and The Embarkation for Cythera. He focused on Fête galante.