(1684?C1721). French painter of Flemish descent, b. Valenciennes. Until 1704 poverty forced him to work in the shops of mediocre artists, where he produced genre and devotional subjects. In 1704?C8 he studied in the studio of Claude Gillot, an adept painter of scenes of theatrical life, which later became the subject of some of Watteau's finest paintings, such as Love in the Italian Theatre and Love in the French Theatre (both: Berlin). In 1708?C9 Watteau worked with the decorator Claude Audran. Watteau attracted the attention of eminent patrons in his last years, including the comte de Caylus, his biographer, and in 1717 he was made a full member of the Acad??mie royale. The Embarkation for Cythera (1717; Louvre) is characteristic of his art; it is a delicate, courtly fantasy, represented in warm and shimmering pastel tones that place him among the great colorists of all time. A lyric, Giorgionesque quality pervades his airy, gay, and sensuous scenes, which have a poignancy that none of his followers attained. Out of the most fleeting aspects of life he created an enduring and individual art. His exquisite paintings influenced fashion and garden design in the 18th cent. Other outstanding works include Gilles (Louvre), Perspective (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston), Mezzetin (Metropolitan Mus.), and Gersaint's Shop Sign (1719; Berlin).   Related Paintings of WATTEAU, Antoine :. | en rokokodam | Harlequin and Columbine | The Pleasures of the Ball | Ftes Vnitiennes | A Halt During the Chase21 |
Related Artists:
Sandro botticelli and workshop
Italian c.1445-1510
Lev Feliksovich Lagorio
(Russian: 1828-1905) was a Russian painter, known for his paintings of seascapes. Lagorio was born in Feodosia, Crimea (now Ukraine) and later studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. His teachers were Maxim Vorobiev and B. P. Villeval'de. While he lived in Feodosia, he was influenced by the painter Ivan Aivazovsky. In 1845 Lagorio went on a sea voyage on the warship Groziashchy to study the arrangement of the ship. Lagorio spent eight years in Italy. The paintings he created there brought him to the status of professor on his return home to Russia. In his later years, he painted the coastal views of Finland and Norway. He also painted motives of the Russian-Turkish war.
RAEBURN, Sir Henry
Scottish Romantic Painter, 1756-1823 Scottish painter. He is perhaps the best known of all Scottish painters, with a critical reputation rivalling that of Allan Ramsay. He was almost exclusively a portrait painter, and his work did much to define Scottish society in a period of immense vigour and intellectual distinction. The demand for his work was sufficient to sustain a career wholly in Scotland, although he occasionally regretted his lack of first-hand knowledge of portrait painting in London. His working life, which was largely confined to Edinburgh