Hang Around the World: Painting #050

Jean-Antoine Watteau

(French Baroque-Rococo, 1684–1721)

... revitalized the waning Baroque style, shifting it to Rococo.

Portrait of Antoine Watteau
- Rosalba Carriera (1675–1757, Italian)
- pastel on paper (55 x 43 cm) 1721
- Luigi Bailo Museum (Treviso, Italy)

Louis XIV style. Louis XIV (1638-1643-1715) of France attracted the European centre of arts from Rome to Paris, making French court etiquette, costumes, architecture, and the French language models for the rest of the Europe -- just like the elites coming to Rome to learn Latin during Renaissance.

Louis XIV outlived his son, grandson, and eldest great grandson.
His throne was then succeeded by his younger great grandson, Louis XV.

After his death in 1715, arts and architecture got loosened up, going Rococo style, or Louis XV (1710-1715-1774) style. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes.

Rococo Style 1700-1760

L'Enseigne de Gersaint / The Shop Sign of Gersaint

- Antoine Watteau

- oil on canvas (163 × 306 cm) 1720

- Charlottenburg Palace (Berlin)

As a gift to art dealer Gersaint, the painting exaggerates the size of Gersaint's cramped boutique, on the medieval Pont Notre-Dame, in Paris. Portraits of Louis XIV were being boxed, hinting the end of the French Baroque age.

Pont Notre-Dame (Paris)
- Nicolas Jean-Baptiste Raguenet
- oil on canvas, 1751

A festival of sailors' games on the Seine at Pont Notre-Dame, Paris, France.

La Joute des mariniers (mariners' games)
entre le Pont-Notre-Dame
et le Pont-au-Change
- Nicolas Jean-Baptiste Raguenet
(1715–1793, French)
- oil on canvas (57 x 93 cm) 1751
- Musée Carnavalet (Paris)