Watteau and His World
Sunday, October 18, 2009 - Sunday, March 8, 2009
The art of Jean-Antoine Watteau is enthralling in its beauty and almost inexplicable in its originality. In an era completely dominated by the Academy, his subjects broke most rules, transforming traditional pastorals into contemporary costume pieces and images from popular theatre into ambiguous metaphors. The materials and handling of his paintings are consonantly individual, elaborating upon early Venetian examples and emphasizing nuances of perception So too with Watteau’s drawings. Their astonishing immediacy and intimacy were a radical departure from both academic practice and a more literal revival of Rubens. The sense of Watteau’s eccentricity and mystery is reinforced by his various conflicts with the establishment, his embrace by only a small circle of connoisseurs, and a lack of documentation during the height of his activity. But if his immediate appreciation and following were limited, his pursuit of the representation of the intangible anticipates a fundamental concern of modern art.
Prints were an essential expression of Watteau’s art. His own ten etchings render characteristic subjects––a series of costumed figures and two military scenes––with an extremely free hand and light touch. More significant are the hundreds of etchings after his drawings that were commissioned by the collector Jean de Julienne shortly after his death. This project proposed an alternative to conventional draftsmanship, became a second education for François Boucher, and established the reproduction of drawings as a basic function of printmaking. Not least, through the 1730s there were numerous reproductive engravings of Watteau’s paintings. Since none of his projects had been monumental and few of his works had been seen in public, these prints provided a wider audience its only knowledge of his art. Moreover, Watteau’s idiosyncratic style elicited a new approach in which etching is dominant and painterly values are paramount. As much as Watteau’s own works, these prints stood in opposition to academic standards and predicted the later development of the form.
Prints were an essential expression of Watteau’s art. His own ten etchings render characteristic subjects––a series of costumed figures and two military scenes––with an extremely free hand and light touch. More significant are the hundreds of etchings after his drawings that were commissioned by the collector Jean de Julienne shortly after his death. This project proposed an alternative to conventional draftsmanship, became a second education for François Boucher, and established the reproduction of drawings as a basic function of printmaking. Not least, through the 1730s there were numerous reproductive engravings of Watteau’s paintings. Since none of his projects had been monumental and few of his works had been seen in public, these prints provided a wider audience its only knowledge of his art. Moreover, Watteau’s idiosyncratic style elicited a new approach in which etching is dominant and painterly values are paramount. As much as Watteau’s own works, these prints stood in opposition to academic standards and predicted the later development of the form.