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Jean-Antoine Watteau
(1684-1721)
October 10, 1684, supposed day of Watteau＊s birth, is actually the date he was baptized at the church of St. Jacques in Valenciennes. He was the son of Jean-Philippe Watteau, master roofer and carpenter, who knew how to read and write, and was officially registered as a bourgeois. All we know about Watteau＊s mother is the name: Michele, n谷e Lordenois; of Watteau＊s three brothers that they continued his father＊s enterprise. It is unknown whether his parents encouraged his artistic vocation. None the less they allowed the boy, on turning fifteen, to get some instruction from Jacques-Albert G谷rin, the correct, mediocre official painter of Valenciennes.
After the death of G谷rin (in 1702), Watteau studied with another painter, who specialized in decorating theatres. Watteau accompanied this man to Paris, where he was called to decorate the Opera House. Watteau helped his master for a few months, then moved back to his native town. From this short experience Watteau derived various staging devices, a certain science of costume and setting, and theatrical poses, which lend his pictures the character of pantomime. Later in Paris at the print-shop of Pierre II Mariette and his son Jean, Watteau had ample opportunities to study the great masters in the collection there (Rubens, Titian, Bruegel, Callot and others). He met there (in 1703) Claude Gillot, who asked him to come and lodge together. Gillot had won some recognition with pictures drawn from the performances of the commedia dell＊arte. It seems that Watteau borrowed from him the idea of the f那tes galantes. In 1707 Watteau left Gillot for obscure reasons. His new partner was Claude Audran.
Before or after parting with Audran, at any rate between 1708 and 1711, he left for Valenciennes with some money paid to him by the art dealer Sirois, Gersaint＊s father-in-law, for a picture. The town was then in a zone of military operations. The warlike bustle and atmosphere inspired him. Such subjects were, in fact, quite contemporary. Watteau did not work on commission but only as it pleased him, which did not prevent his pictures from being purchased. That accounts for the naturalness and vivacity of his military-scene sketches and for the free treatment of his paintings. Like veritable pieces of reportage, the painted scenes do not have the usual solemnity of such pictures. Instead of celebrating grandees, they capture the truth of life.
On his return to Paris Watteau competed for the Prize of Rome, which would have enabled him to go to Italy and study the great masters there. The attempt failed. Watteau was now living in Sirois＊ house. He frequented the theatres and, abandoning the military scenes, began to paint f那tes galantes, quasi-pastoral idylls in .... |
