La perspective (view through the trees in the park of Pierre Crozat)

Watteau, Jean-Antoine (1684-1721)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1715

Height:

46.7 cm  (18 3/8 in.)

Width:

55.3 cm  (21 3/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

This "fête galante" scene pictures numerous elegantly attired persons and includes one man, seated on the ground, playing a guitar while a lady listens.
Commentary from museum website:
Watteau developed and made famous a type of painting of the elegant party, called the fête galante, in which ladies and gentlemen converse, flirt, and make music in idyllic outdoor settings. This is his only fête galante with an identifiable setting: in the distance, Watteau shows the Château de Montmorency near Paris, home of his friend and patron, the art collector and financier Pierre Crozat. The artist freely transformed the site, creating a dreamlike fantasy world evocative of the theater with its backdrop of towering trees and graceful groupings of figures in old-fashioned dress.

Iconclass

48CC7522
one person playing string instrument (plucked) - CC - out of doors
41A636
French or architectonic gardens; formal garden
33C93
garden of Love, court of Love, 'fête galant'
48CC78
listening to music - CC - out of doors

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Guitar [3237] (5-course Baroque)

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

5902