Unknown
Gallant party in the park. French School. Mid-18th century
1700s

Name: Gallant party in the park. French School. Mid-18th century
Brand: Unknown
Price: 18308.26 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

The scene depicts a feast within a park enclosed by walls with arched gateways opening onto the countryside, and adorned on the right with an amphora on a small column and in the center, behind the figures, with a gushing fountain, with statues of cherubs and shells. Two couples of richly dressed ladies and gentlemen entertain themselves gallantly, surrounded by servants; one of the men is playing the violin, crouching in front of his lady, who, flanked by the damsel, follows the melody on the score held up by the dark-haired man at her side, while two musicians accompany the playing with flute and a mandolin; the other couple, in an attitude of intimate dialogue, listens on the left, while on the right the hunter returning from the hunt also observes the scene. Particularly prominent in the scene is the rich dress of the lady in the center, characterized by the wide back folds falling from her shoulders to create a cape. Such a dress corresponds to what was called "robe à la Watteau," named after the French painter Antoine Watteau who first portrayed ladies wearing this pattern. Antoine Watteau (1684 -1721), a French painter considered one of the most influential French exponents of Rococo painting, was the forerunner of the pictorial genre of gallant scenes, a genre that developed in France from the late 1600s and continued throughout the following century. The gallant scenes could be considered as the aristocratic version of the genre scene: characterized by music, dances, pleasant conversations between ladies and gentlemen surrounded by servants, they tended to enhance the costumes, fashionable clothes, and environments of the upper class, conveying a kind of detachment from the real times and places, projecting the viewer into an almost theatrical atmosphere of gestures, looks, colors and stage lights. Moreover, Watteau, along with the Fêtes galantes cycles, also distinguished himself for those inspired by the theater, absorbing his passion for the scenes and characters of that milieu from Claude Gillot, the Parisian painter of theatrical subjects at whose workshop Watteau trained between 1702 and 1707/1708. The panel of the painting presented here is also decorated on the back with a "chinoiserie" style motif, suggesting that this side must also have been visible, for example, serving as a cover for an openable piece of furniture. Also on the back is the vignette of Pietro Accorsi (1891 -1982), the great antiquarian as well as collector from Turin who, thanks to his exceptional artistic intuition, recovered thousands of dismembered and scattered works of art over seventy years and established himself as a consultant to collectors, dealers, and art institutions of all nationalities.

Creation Year:

1700s

Dimensions:

Height: 24.02 in (61 cm)Width: 51.58 in (131 cm)Depth: 1.97 in (5 cm)

Medium:

Oil

Period:

Mid-18th Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Milan, IT

Reference Number: