Fête Galante

Fête Galante

Techniques. Resources. Creative Processes. Genres.

We could make this publication thanks to small donations. How is 3 minutos de arte supported?

Fête Galante

Antoine Watteau is considered the “creator” and most representative figure of this genre of painting, which is a characteristic, emblematic genre of the Rococo period.

Rococo in general is the style that shows the cheerful, carefree, elegant, sophisticated, sensual life of the privileged class (in the 18th century, until the French Revolution arrived and put an end to the style and the privileged class).

The Fêtes galantes are paintings that show aristocrats having fun, courting, and enjoying their leisure in country scenes or in elegant gardens.

The atmosphere is not real but idealized in excess, poetic, with a certain artificial and dramatic air.

It is a universe of “perfect” beauty and happiness. And the artist’s talent, through the magical and serene atmosphere he creates, offers us something that is crucial in art since it is the expression of life itself: that simultaneous contrast of beauty and melancholy; of the sensation of full happiness and that bitter taste of not being able to fully enjoy that plenitude because of knowing that it will soon be over. Life is a party, and parties come to an end.

Image: Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera (1717). Antoine Watteau

Recommended links:

Characteristic Elements of Rococo Painting.

The Fêtes Galantes of Watteau.

Artistic Movements from Classical Antiquity to Rococo.

Rococo in 5 points.

Rococo Style in 6 Paintings.

The Touch of François Boucher.

Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842).

You can also find more material using the search engine.

Would you like to support 3 minutos de arte?

Our project.