Rococo painting

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Rococo painting

• The Century of Louis XV

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The Marquise de Pompadour became the mistress of
Louis XV, king of France, in 1745. François
Boucher painted this portrait, which hangs in the
Louvre museum in Paris, France
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Outline

• Introduction
• Part I. The 18th century in France
• Part II. Definition of Rococo
• Part III. Rococo painters
• Conclusion
• References

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Introduction

• Rococo art, which flourished in France and
  Germany in the early 18th century, was in many
  respects a continuation of the baroque,
  particularly in the use of light and shadow and
  compositional movement
• Rejected the traditional themes of heroes and
  mythology and instead focused on representing the
  carefree life characteristic of the aristocratic
  patrons of the arts
• This style received its name in the nineteenth
  century from French émigrés, who used the word to
  designate in whimsical fashion the old shellwork
  style (style rocaille), then regarded as Old
  Frankish

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Part I. The 18th century in France

• The Rococo style succeeded Baroque Art in Europe.
  It was centered in France, associated with the
  reign of Louis XV
• Louis XV (1710-74), king of France (1715-74),
  whose failure to provide strong leadership and
  badly needed reforms contributed to the crisis
  that brought on the French Revolution
• Pompadour, Marquise de, née Jeanne Antoinette
  Poisson (1721-64), influential mistress of Louis
  XV, king of France, known for her patronage of
  art and literature
• In 1745 French population 25 million 28 million
  in 1789
• Emergence of the intellectual movement called the
  Enlightenment

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Part II. Definition of Rococo

• An eighteenth century art style which placed
  emphasis on portraying the carefree life of the
  aristocracy rather than on grand heroes or pious
  martyrs
• Love and romance were considered to be better
  subjects for art than historical or religious
  subjects
• The style was characterized by a free, graceful
  movement a playful use of line and delicate
  colors
• Genre painting came back into favor when the
  Academy admitted Watteau to its ranks in 1717 on
  the presentation of this work, the subject of
  which was so novel that the term "fête galante"
  was coined to describe it

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Part III. Rococo painters

• Among rococo painters, Jean-Antoine Watteau is
  known for his ethereal pictures of elegantly
  dressed lovers disporting themselves at fêtes
  galantes (fashionable outdoor gatherings)
• Highly popular also were mythological and
  pastoral scenes, including lighthearted and
  graceful depictions of women, by Fragonard and
  Chardin

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a. Watteau

• Watteau, Jean-Antoine (1684-1721), French
  painter, who is regarded as one of the
  outstanding artists of the rococo period
• Born at Valenciennes, which had passed to France
  from the Spanish Netherlands only six years
  before his birth
• Moved to Paris in 1702, worked with Gillot, who
  stimulated his interest in theatrical costume and
  scenes from daily life
• In 1717 he submitted The Pilgrimage to the Island
  of Cythera (Louvre, Paris), as his reception
  piece to the Academy
• Watteau had many loyal friends and supporters who
  recognized his genius, and although his
  reputation suffered with the Revolution and the
  growth of Neoclassicism

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This picture was Watteau's diploma piece for the
Académie royal de Peinture et de Sculpture.
Watteau's nomination was accepted by the Académie
in 1712. the general atmosphere of the painting
is Venetian, and the distant mountains in their
blue haze recall Leonardo
The Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera
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b. Fragonard

• Fragonard, Jean-Honoré (1732-1806), French
  painter of the rococo age, became a favorite in
  the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI
• His most familiar works, such as The Swing (c.
  1766), are characterized by delicate hedonism
• François Boucher was prevailed upon to accept him
  as a pupil
• In 1752, Fragonard's elementary training
  completed, Boucher recommended that he compete
  for a Prix de Rome scholarship, which meant study
  under Carle Van Loo, in Paris
• In 1756, Fragonard set off with other scholarship
  winners for the French Academy at Rome
• A prodigiously active artist, he produced more
  than 550 paintings, several thousand drawings
  (although many hundreds are known to be lost),
  and 35 etchings. His style, based primarily on
  that of Rubens, was rapid, vigorous, and fluent,
  never tight or fussy

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The Swing
1767Oil on canvas, 81 x 64 cmWallace
Collection, London
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c. Chardin

• Chardin, Jean Baptiste Siméon (1699-1779), French
  painter, one of the greatest of the 18th century
• Embodies the frivolity and elegant superficiality
  of French court life at the middle of the 18th
  century
• In 1727-31 he was in Italy, and on his return was
  soon busy as a versatile fashionable artist
• Director of the Gobelins factory in 1755 and
  Director of the Academy and King's Painter in
  1765
• Favourite artist of Louis XV's most famous
  mistress, Mme de Pompadour, to whom he gave
  lessons and whose portrait he painted several
  times

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Winter (1735 Frick Collection, New York )
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Conclusion

• It was a reaction of nobility against classical
  baroque which had been imposed at Versailles by
  Louis XIV
• Style of the aristocracy it revealed a taste for
  what is clear and elegant, refined and gallant
• Life without worry, closely related to nature
• Its influence on French architecture is limited,
  yet it reaches Germany where it finds favorable
  ground
• The 1789 French Revolution interrupted the
  development of Rococo
• Rococo was eventually replaced by Neoclassicism,
  which was the popular style of the American and
  French revolutions

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References

• http//www.kfki.hu/arthp/html/w/watteau/antoine/1
  /index.html
• http//www.artlex.com/ArtLex/r/rococo.html
• http//witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTH18thcentury.html
• http//www.abcgallery.com/movemind.htmlRococo
• http//www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/fragonard/
• http//www.zeroland.co.nz/art_periods.html
• http//www.artcyclopedia.com/history/rococo.html