Merry Company in the Open Air

Antoine Watteau invented the fête galante: elegant young people in silk dresses and theatre costumes gathered in dreamy parks, talking, flirting and making music. The mood is light but often tinged with sadness, and his brushwork is feathery, with shimmering colour. He was born in Valenciennes and came to Paris young. He worked with Claude Gillot, who painted scenes from Italian comedy, and with the decorator Claude Audran, who gave him access to Rubens’s paintings in the Luxembourg Palace. His Embarkation for Cythera was accepted by the Royal Academy in 1717, and his last major work, the shop sign painted for the dealer Gersaint, is one of his best. He died at 36. Gilles, the life size actor dressed as Pierrot standing awkwardly before the audience, is in the Louvre. Look at his faces, which are often turned away, and at the silky shine of the fabrics.