Antoine Watteau (1684-1721); - Mauclair, Camille, 1872

8/21/2019 Antoine Watteau (1684-1721); - Mauclair, Camille, 1872

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WATTEAU


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The PopularLibrary of ArtEdited byEdward Garnett


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The Popular Library of ArtALBRECHT DURER (37 Illustrations).By LiNA ECKENSTEIN.ROSSETTI (53 Illustrations).By FoRu Madox Hueffer.REMBRANDT (61 Illustrations).By Auguste Bral.FRED. WALKER (32 Illustrations andPhotogravure).By Clementina Black.MILLET (32 Illustrations).By Ro.M.'ViN Rolland.THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS

(50 Illustrations^By Camille Mauclair.LEONARDO DA VINCI (44 Illustrations).By Dr Georg Gronau.GAINSBOROUGH (55 Illustrations).By Arthur B. Chamberlain.BOTTICELLI (37 Illustrations).By Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady).CRUIKSHANK.By W. H. Chesson.RAPHAEL (50 Illustrations).By Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady).VELAZQUEZ (51 Illustrations).By Auguste Bral.HOLBEIN (50 Illustrations).By Ford Madox Hueffer.ENGLISH WATER COLOUR PAINTERS

(50 Illustrations).By A J. Finberg.PERUGINO.By Edward Hutton.THE PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD.By Ford Madox Hueffer.Others in Preparation.


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HARLEQUIN AND COLUMBINE (Wallace Collection)PJiofograph, ManselI llf Co.


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ARTSWDANTOINEWATTEAU

(1684-1721)

CAMILLE MAUCLAIR

LONDON: DUCKWORTH & CO.NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.


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Translated from the French text of MonsieurCamille Mauclair by Madame Simon Bussy

TrRNBULL AND SPEAKS, PRINTKKS, EDINBURGH


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MY FRIENDSIMON BUSSY

POET OF LANDSCAPE PAINTINGI AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE

THIS BOOKC. M.


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CONTENTSI PACKWatteau's birthHis early life at Valenciennes

His poverty in ParisWorks with Gillot :origin of pictures drawn from Italian comedyWorks at ornament painting with AudranFirst military picturesReturns to Valen-ciennesSecond stay in ParisCompetes forthe Prix de RomeHis election to the Academy 13

IIWatteau's life from 1712 to 1721His illness

Visits to different friends, Crozat, Vleughels,Sirois, and GersaintHis journey to LondonHis last stay at Nogent-sur-Marne and hisdeathHow he was regretted, imitated, andfinally deserted in common with his contem-porariesLastly, how he was rediscovered andmore admired for the superficial qualities ofhis art than for the profoundness of his soul . 40

IIIScenes from Italian comedy and pictures of military

life 61


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CONTENTSIV

Watteau's Pastorals or Ftes GalantesTheir char-acter of aloofness from time and placeHistechnique : how it is the forerunner of modernimpressionism by its division of tones . . 80

Watteau's characterThe phases of his illnessHis misanthropy, his disinterestedness, hisfits of temper, his desire for solitudeThepsychological side of his disease . . 113

VIWatteau's illness traced in the inward signification

of his work L'Indiffrent and l'Embarquementpour Ci/there studied from this point of \-iewChastity and voluptuousness of Watteau'sworks : his art, the poem of unsatisfied desire . 134

VIIWatteau's place in the French schoolHis influence

on the eighteenth centuryLancretBoucherand FragonardHow he brought about theabandonment of the Italian tradition, createdthe art of his century, and made it revert toEubensConsiderations on the series of con-sumptive intellects and artists whose geniusis akin to Watteau's Mozart, Bonington,Schubert, Chopin, Keats, Laforgue, Samain,etc.Conclusions .... 165


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LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONSPAGEHarlequin and ColumbineVIndiscret

(^Vallace Collection). Photograph,Mansell S^ Co. . . . Frontispiece

Savoyard with his MarmotPetit Savoyard(Hermitage Gallery). Photograph,Braun, Clment c*y Cie, Dornach, Paris,and New York ..... 5The EaiBARKMENT for CytheraVEm-barquement pour Cythre(Right-handPortion) (Berlin Academy). Photograph,Braun, Clement S^ Cie, Dornach, Paris,and New York ..... 9The Music LessonLe Concert (^V^allaceCollection). Photograph, Mansell S^ Co. 17

A Lady at herToiletLaToilette(WallaceCollection). Photograph, Mansell S Co. 23

AutumnA utomne(Louvre). Photograph,Giraudon ...... 2aJupiter and Antiope (Louvre). Photograph,Giraudon ...... 29

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPAGEThe Judgment of ParisLe Juyemeyit de

Paris(Louvre). Photograph, Giraudon 33The Embarkment for Cythera V Em-barquement pour Cythre (Louvre).Photograph, Giraudon .... 37

Gersaint's Sign (Detail) (Berlin Academy).Photograph, Braun, Clment S


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSFETE Galante (Berlin Museum). Photo-

graph, Braun, Clment c\ Cie, DornachParis, and Xew York ...The False StepLe Faux Pas(Louvre)Photograph, Giraudon .

PastoralLe Plaisir Pastoral(Chantilly)Photograph, Braun, Clment 5^ CieDornach, Paris, and New York

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89The Music Party Le Concert (Berlin

Academy). Photograph, Braun, ClmentS) Cie, Dornach, Paris, and New York . 93

The Cha3ips Elyses (Wallace Collection).Photograph, Mansell 6^ Co. . . . 99Landscape (Chatsworth Collection). Photo-

graph, Mansell S^- Co 103FinettaLa Finette(Louvre). Photograph,

Giraudon ...... 107The Return from the Chase (Wallace Col-lection). Photograph, Mansell iS)- Co. . 115

The Terrace Party Runion en PleinAir(Dresden Gallery). Photograph,Giraudon . . . . . .123

The Gathering in a ParkL'Assemble dansun Pare(Louvre). Photograph, Giraudon 129

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPAGECountry PleasuresLes Amusements Cham-

ptres(Dresden Gallery). Photograph,Braun, Clment S; Cie, Dornach, Paris,and New York 137

Gilles (Louvre). Photograph, Giraudon . 143L'Indiffrent (Louvre). Photograph, Girau-

don 149The Embarkment for Cythera VEm-

barquement pour Cythere (BerlinAcademy). Photograph, Braun, Clment,6^ Cie, Dornach, Paris, and New York . 153

The Fountain (Wallace Collection). Photo-graph, Mansell Co. . . . .157

The Dance ; Iris La Danse (BerlinAcademy). Photograph, Braun, Clement0^ Cie, Dornach, Paris, and New York . 161

The Soubrette (Chantilly). Photograph,Braun, Clement S) Cie, Dornach, Paris,and New York ..... 169

Study of a Man. Watercolour (Chantilly).Photograph, Braun, Clment S Cie,Dornach, Paris, and New York . . 175The Conjurer VEscamoteur (TheLouvre). Photograph, Giraudon . . 181

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PREFACEThis brief study does not pretend to analysethe deepest secrets of Antoine Watteaii's art^soul, and genius. My strict duty as a biographerobliges me to omit none of the chief circum-stances of the artist's lifenone, at any rate,which help to throw any light on his work, orto define its meaning and conditions. Theobject and the format of this series compel meto restrict myself to generalities. It is, more-over, impossible to display any brilliant erudi-tion in relating the story of so well-known anexistence, which has been told in many previousbooks withabundant documentary evidence,andespecially in the Memoir of the Comte de Caylus,a work which leaves no room for furtherresearch. I have therefore confined myself tosummarising the most significant features ofWatteau's life ; but this, together with theanalysis of his works and technique, takes upthe greater part of my book.

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PREFACEAfter accomplishing my duty towards the

public, there remained, however, a duty towardsmyselfthe duty of pronouncing a personalopinion on Watteau's work and on his place inthe French school. After recapitulating whathas already been said about him, my task con-sisted in attempting to give some usefulnessand originality to this book by deducing anindividual conclusion. I have thus tried toadd to the existing idea of Watteau some ele-ments of comprehension and appreciation whichhad hitherto passed unnoticed. The onlyexcuse for a work of this kind is that it shouldendeavour to take a step forward in the studyof an eminent personality. The analysis of agreat mindsimilar in this respect to themysteries of naturecan never be completed.In the progress of science, the further backthe limits of the unknown are pushed, themore mysteries are discovered hidden behindthose which have been elucidated, mysterieswhose very existence is unsuspected byignorance, to whom all things seem simple.To the eyes of science, however, fresh objectsof research incessantly ariseand thus it iswith genius. The more it is scrutinised and


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PREFACEthe further back its limits are pushed^ theAvider is the field for investigation. The dutyof the critic^ even in a slight work of popular-isation such as this^ is to go further than hispredecessors, and to make it possible for hissuccessors to go further in their turn, bysuggesting fresh subjects for inquiry. I havetherefore considered by what means I couldbest indicate such subjects, and I have cometo the conclusion that I cannot pretend to addanything to the erudite exegesis of a career,the evolution of which has already been tracedwith great minuteness ; nor can I extort fromthe signification of the pictures themselves theoccasion for a brilliant and literary argument.I have therefore taken up a standpoint whichit will be well for me to explain at once. Ihave often remarked with surprise how littleheed is paid, by those who study great artists,to their physiology. Though biographers maymention their illnesses and physical habits,the art critic seems to establish no correlationbetween these facts and the style and expres-sion of the artists' works themselves. Whilereflecting upon Watteau, one of the painterswhose spell I have felt the most intensely, it

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PREFACEhas occurred to me to wonder whether logicdoes not demand that a close parallel shouldbe drawn between his physiological state andthe spirit of his pictures, which would appearto be its direct consequence.

For this reason, after completing the accountof Watteau's life and works with all the carethat can be demanded of a biographer, historian,and art critic, I have endeavoured to explainthe essential meaning of this great painter'sart by that disease of consumption whichbrought him prematurely to the grave at theage of thirty-seven. The specially intellectualcharacter of this terrible malady induced meto seek in this quarter elements of criticismwhich are not generally made use of. Privatecircumstances put it in my power to studyduring several years the action of consumptionon the imagination, and the effect of thisstrange illness on the artistic organism, sensi-bility, character, and work. I was thus enabledto observe in Watteau the symptoms of thisinfluence, and to recognise in this celebrated,but to my mind somewhat misunderstoodpainter, characteristics common to a wholeseries of consumptive artists of the nineteenth

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SAVOYARD WITH HIS MARMOT (Hekmitag Gai.leky)Photoa7\iph, Braun, Clment Iff Cie, Doinach, Paris, and Neiv Tork


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PREFACEcentury, whose exceptional art was thecerebral product of pulmonary disease, andwho found in this malady, not only their death,but the secret of their admirable, strange, andpathetic poetry.

I am well aware that by introducing suchspeculations into art criticism I may causesome astonishment. I have no pretensions toestablish any invariable and methodical rela-tionship between physiology and imagination,though this has been often attempted bvpsychologists. Such arid dissertations will notbe found in this slight work. NeverthelessWatteau is not what he seems, and above allnot what he seemed in the eyes of his con-temporaries. Like Chardin and La Tour hestands aloof from his generation, a lonely soul^a dominant figure. He has been praised forthe charming outwardness of his talent,and perhaps the inward signification thatunderlies his decorative effects has passedunheeded. At any rate the school thatdirectly followed Watteau in the eighteenthcentury proves, by its graceful superficiality,how i-AY Lancret and Pater were from suspect-ing the special quality of the genius whose

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PREFACEmelancholy and almost metaphysical dreami-ness were bound to escape the comprehensionof such a period.

It does not appear that later writers onWatteau have sought in the story of his un-happy life and illness motives for a differentjudgment. The connection between the workand the sick man who produced it seems tohave struck them not at all. They have scarceso much as recognised in Watteau a kind of'^'^ morbidezza which differentiates him fromother painters of ^^ scnes galantes/' and it hasnot occurred to them to wonder at the contrastbetween his sombre temperament and thelight, brilliant, and amorous complexion of hispainting. They have not perceived in thiscontrast an opportunity for intellectual re-search, nor been led to discover that his pro-duction was sad in signification, and theillustration of the ^'^ soul-side of a confirmedconsumptive.

I have therefore pursued my investigationsin this direction. My first intuition as toWatteau's art dates from long ago ; but eversince those earliest visits to the Louvre as ayoung man, I have always felt that his was an

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PREFACEart of intense sadness, different in every wayfrom what was generally said of it. Withadvancing years I have been able to makesure that in reahty Watteau was no ^' petit-matre, no painter of gay and laughing scenes,but that underneath this decorative exteriorlay a great soul that had drunk deep of themysterious poison of despair, a soul that hadbeen stricken by what has been called themalady of the infinite. I have thus cometo see in Watteau the prototype of a wholeseries of modern artists, or at anyrate theextraordinary painter of those scenes in whichwander the dreams of all great consumptives.

This is what makes Watteau inimitable.This is the reason he seenis so peculiarlyindividual that none of his successors, skilfulas they were in his manner, have ever beenable to catch one particle of his soul. This isthe reason that this isolated figure of theeighteenth century is as modern as one ofour own contemporaries.The thesis has never yet been advanced. Ihope to have justified it in this volume by a fewcogent arguments. I have pondered over itfor many years before submitting it to the8


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PREFACEpublic, waiting for my conviction to beestablished securely enough to prevent anysuspicion of paradox.

I have in no wise yielded to the pleasure ofputting forward a paradox on Watteau, or ofenhancing the interest of my work by suchfacile means. It would be unworthy a greatartist to make him subservient to such ends.On the contrary, I think I have neither forcedthe meaning of his works, nor travestied hisexistence, but have simply gone to the root ofthings by basing my criticism on physiologyand saying what I see, and what, it seems tome, others have not seen.

It is only my sincerity that I need heredefend. The public will judge of the validityof my arguments, and I will detain it no longer.I wish only to utter one word of warning as tothe unpleasant impression that may be createdby this introduction of disease into the con-sideration of an artist's work. It is unnecessaryto take the word disease in a pejorativesense. Disease is a condition, not necessarily ablemish. It may intensify as well as paralyse,be an influence for good as well as for evil ona man's imagination and talent. It seems in

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PREFACEespecial to favour greatly the manifestation ofa certain kind of genius. It is permissible tothink that without it neither Watteau, norNovalis, nor Bonington, nor Chopin, nor anyother mind of this lineage would have beenwhat we admire. The glowing precocity oftheir youthful blossoming was worth the slowlyripening wisdom of healthier temperaments,and the savour of death mingles with theirbeauty without corrupting it.


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Watteau's birthHis early life at ValenciennesHispoverty in ParisWorks with Gillot : origin ofpictures drawn from Italian comedyWorks at orna-ment painting with AudranFirst military picturesReturns to Valenciennes Second stay in ParisCompetes for the Prix de Rome His election to theAcademy.

The only known documents relative toWatteau's life were a few succinct notes ind'Argenville's Abrg de la vie des plusfameux peintres/' in Gersaint's Cataloguesd'estampes/' ^ and in M. de Julienne's pre-fatory notice to a collection of Watteau'setchings and drawings, when, by a luckychance, the brothers de Concourt discovered a Life of Watteau, written by the Comte deCaylus and presented by him to the RoyalAcademy of Painting and Sculpture. To thislife were subjoined a certain number of re-

^ Notice inserted hy the picture dealer Gersaint intothe catalogue ofthe Quentin de Lorangre collection.

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ANTOINE WATTEAUportSj speeches, and Academicians' biographies,wliich for some unknown reason had beenomitted from the official proceedings of theEcole des Beaux Arts. The Comte de Caylusread his Memoir at a sitting of the Academyon February 3rd, 1748 ; Charles Coypelanswered, and Lpici, in his capacity ofsecretary, countersigned the minutes of themeeting according to custom. We may dis-miss Caylus' personal appreciations, which arestamped with the grossest want of artisticcomprehension. He evidently totally failedto grasp the genius of the man with whom hehad been acquainted, and the praise hebestows on him, accompanied as it is by con-tinual reservations, would at the best be applic-able to a trifling third-rate painter. But thedocumentary evidence furnished by this workgives it the highest importance. By collatingit with the scanty information furnished byGersaint, Mariette, and M, de Julienne, wecan reconstitute in detail the career of thisextraordinary man, who was never estimatedat his true worth during his lifetime, and w^hocame near to being completely overwhelmedby the great whirlwind of scornful oblivion into


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ANTOINE WATTEAUwhich he was cast^ together with the rest ofthe eighteenth century painters, by the schoolof David cand Ingres, till about the year 1865.The Life of Watteau/' so fortunately re-covered by the Goncourts (those ardent de-fenders of eighteenth century art, who, indeed,almost exhumed it out of ashes, like the un-tarnished paintings of Pompeii), is thus ourmost trustworthy document, and thanks to italone we are able to-day to form an accurateidea of Watteau's brief and unhappy existence.Caylus knew him well, and has left us a minuteanalysis of his character and methods. Theportions of his work that deal with Watteau'stechnique may as often as not be disregardedon account of their incompetence and theprejudice by which they are dictated, butthose which concern his character and illnessare of the deepest interest, and we shall makeuse of them in order to establish the con-clusions of this volume.

Antoine Watteau ^ was born at Valenciennes^ Caylus writes \V^ateau, as do most of his contem-

poraries, although the artist himself often signedhis works ^V^atteau. The reduplication of the t was optional at that date.

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ANTOINE WATTAUin 1684-, and was baptised in that town onOctober the 10th. He was, says Cayhis, theson of a tiler ; Gersaint corrects this to'' master tiler and carpenter. and some\'alenciennes writers, in particular M. Cellier,insist on the fact that Watteau's father was ineasy circumstances. The same correction hasbeen made in the case of Greuze's family.Greuze's father was a carpenter at Tournus ;like Watteau, Greuze started life in extremepoverty, and a discussion has arisen as towhether this was the result of the family cir-cumstances or of their fathers' opposition totheir vocation. However this may be, it wouldappear that Watteau's origin was exceedinglyhumble, at any rate from a pecuniary point ofview. His father Mas a hard man ; he had nodesire to have a painter son. M. de Julienne,who became Watteau's devoted friend andsympathetic patron, declares that his fatherdid not oppose his wishes,and thathe even placedhim for some time with a painter at ^'alenciennes,so that he might learn the principles of his art.It is a fact that Watteau was placed with acertain Grin, painter to the municipality.But Cavlus and Gersaint (Watteau's friend and

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ANTOINE WATTEAUpicture dealer) explain that this painter was amere dauber^ and moreover that Watteau'sfather soon refused to pay the expenses of hiseducation and tried to force his son to becomea tiler like himself. There are strikinganalogies between the early years of Watteauand Greuze. Greuze's father began by severelychastising his son when he caught him draw-ing ; some Avriters say that he finally yieldedand allowed him to go to Paris with a paintercalled Grandon. What is certain is thatGreuze, with or without permission, followedGrandon to Paris, and that Watteau too wentto Paris with a painter called Mtayer, whowas employed as a scene decorator. This wasin 1702, Watteau was eighteen years old, andGrin had just died. The young man hadalready left him, understanding that he couldteach him nothing. He was soon abandonedby Mtayer, who had no more work to givehim and who returned to his own home.Henceforth Watteau was alone in Paris, with-out money, clothes, or resources of any kind,disowned by his father and already in delicatehealth.

Watteau, like Greuze later on, now fell intoi8


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ANTOINE WATTEAUthe extreme of poverty. But Greuze wasfortunately blessed with a robust constitution.The future author of UEmbarquement pourCijthcre no doubt developed the germs ofhis consumption during this period of acutesuffering. He ended by seeking employmentat the Pont Xotre-Dame. In this quarter wereto be found numbers of shops which traded inwretched paintings, such as small-sized portraitsor devotional subjects ; these were fabricatedby the dozen and sold to country shopkeepers.The employer engaged a few unhappy assistantsand insisted on rapidity of execution. ^^ Thisindeed/' we read in Lorangre's Catalogue,*' was the only quality demanded of them. Somedid skies, others draperies, others heads, othersagain put in the whites. We can imagine thesort of stuff produced, by thinking of thepictures to be found nowadays in certainshops that sell religious illuminationsthoughchromolithographs have for the most partreplaced painting by hand. The work en-trusted to Watteau was of no more value thanthe water-colour cards or the touched-up printsby which so many unfortunate beings, whoonce dreamt of becoming painters, earn a

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ANTOINE WATTEAUlaborious living. The young man soon acquiredsuch dexterity that he was entrusted with thesole execution of an entire copy. It was hisduty in particular to reproduce a certain StNicholas that was much in request. He soonknew it by heart and had no need to consultthe original. It happened one day that themistress of the shop forgot to give him theco})y, which she was in the habit of locking upevery evening. She called W'atteau, who wasworking in the attics^ and began to rate himsoundly for taking advantage of her oversightin order to idle. He amused himself by lettingher scold on^ and when she had worked herselfinto a passion, amazed her by producing thepicture^ which he had completely finished frommemory.Watteau's remuneration for work such asthis was three livres ^ every Saturday, and outof a ^* kind of charity he was given a daily mealof soup. Starvation of soul and body, asordid and hopeless lifesuch were thecircumstances of the man who was soon tocreate a new world of delicate visions. In the

' A livre at that time was worth a little more thanthe present franc.

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ANTOINE WATTEAUmeantime he was learning nothing and spoihnghis hand. How was he to extricate himselffrom this situation ? And yet the young man^who possessed intense determination in spiteof his frail body, did not give way to despair.He drew from nature whenever he could snatchan opportunity, on holidays, during his raremoments of leisure, or at night. At last, by ahappy chance, he made the acquaintance ofClaude Gillot who, according to M. de Julienne,invited him to live with him after seeing some ofhis drawings. Gillot was a man of great talent,with extreme skill in the art of ornamentalpainting, and a curious and fanciful imagination.He was an artist of the Renaissance who hadstrayed into the last years of the pompous andmorose seventeenth century. He paintedbacchanals, satyrs, nymphs a whole sensualmythologyand genre pictures, and historicalscenes, all with flexibility and spirit. At theend of his life he confined himself entirely torepresenting scenes of Italian comedy. Hemay be considered as one of the most interest-ing of those artists who lived during that un-grateful period of transition between theseventeentli century and the Regency, when

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ANTOINE WATTEAUart was trying to disencumber itself from anunbearable classicism, and was seeking con-fusedly to adapt itself to the life of its timean attempt that is nowadays called modernity.In any case, if there only remained to Gillotthe glory ofbeing Watteau's precursor, it wouldbe a sufficient title in the history of Frenchart.

Watteau's meeting with Gillot showed himhis true path. Rescued from his lugubriousexistence, he at once understood the rich andvaried decorative ideas of his new companion,and set himself to work with enthusiasm. Hewas instinctively attracted by graceful, lively,cheerful painting. The exquisite vision of allthe felicities he had never known began todawn in the soul of this frail youth, prema-turely shattered by ill-health and poverty.Poor as he was, he worshipped elegance ;timid and retiring, he delighted in amorousluxury ; sick, he could yet adore at the shrineof tender and sensuous pleasure ; and hissharpened vision took the keenest joy in allthe graces of life. The subjects suggested tohim by Gillot were those most likely to satisfyWatteau's tendencies. Italian comedy, with

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A LADY AT HER TOILET (Wallace Collection)Photograph, Mansell 55 Co,


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ANTOINE WATTEAUits -whimsical disguises, its lively, well-definedcharacters, its slim Harlequins, its simplePierrots, the dainty roguery of its Columbinesand its gaudy Pulcinellos, was bound to temptthe painter and furnish him with joyous pre-texts for his intense love of life. This isWatteau's first phase. He began to imitateGillot, and acquired from this excellent crafts-man resources of which he had hitherto beenignorant. Their tastes and characters Averesimilar, and they conceived a lively friendshipfor each other. This identity of disposition,however, eventually led to a quarrel. Theywere too much alike, says Gersaint, and nofault was let pass on either side. They wereevidently two loyal - hearted but nervouscreatures. What we know of Gillot' s physi-ognomy and works leads us to suppose that hewas capricious and irritable. There is no doubtthat Watteau was already consumptive at thistime, and had the characteristic traits of theillnessa great deal of heart, and a tenderand confiding, but changeable disposition,moments of exaltation followed by extremedepression, sudden fits of melancholy, andexcessive sensitiveness. Gillot moreover must,

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AUTUMN (Louvre)Photograph, G'lraudon


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ANTOINE WATTEAUno doubt^ have been jealous of the growingtalent of his pupil. '^They parted on badterms/' says Caylus, and during the rest ofhis life, all the gratitude Watteau was able toshow his master was restricted to a profoundsilence. He even disliked being questionedas to their connection and the breach betweenthem. But as regards his works, he wouldpraise them and never allow people to ignorewhat he owed to him. On the other hand,Gillot (either because he was influenced bymotives of jealousy, as many people say, orbecause he ended by judging himself correctlyand admitting that his pupil had surpassedhim) abandoned painting, and took to drawingand etching. We shall therefore never knowthe exact causes of the quarrel. Gillot'sjealousy and hasty disposition are probablysufficient to account for it. Watteau, none theless, learnt some valuable lessons from Gillot,and in particular the knowledge of his truebent.On leaving Gillot, Watteau went to ClaudeAudran's, taking with him Lancret, who had

been his comrade at Gillot's, and who later onwas to become, like Pater, his pupil and suc-

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ANTOINE WATTEAUcesser. Audran was a painter of ornaments,who had the post of doorkeeper at the Luxem-bourg. He was a skilful disciple of Raphael'sand Primaticcio's theories of ornament painting.He had a certain amount of taste and excelledin ornamenting white or gold backgrounds andin making the borders of ceilings and panels.Under him Watteau acquired once for all thequality of decorative flexibility. His firstemployment with Mtayer at the Opera hadgiven him a feeling for the decorative aspectof things, and also a taste for the theatre.Gillot had encouraged this taste by makinghim paint scenes from Italian comedy andfigures in costume. The work he did whilewith Audran put the finishing touch to thatfeeling for ornament, for graceful combination,and for a kind of garland-like compositionwhich permeates the drawing of Watteau'sfigures and makes one of his greatest charms.

At the same time, during his stay withAudran there came to Watteau two revela-tions of the highest importance. Living inthe Luxembourg, he discovered that he was alandscape painter. The beautiful scenery ofthe park, which is wilder and more natural than

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ANTOINE WATTEAUthat of the other royal parks^ filled him withenthusiasm, and he set about drawing fromnature with ardour. It was these scenes thatsuggested to him the great clumps of luxuriantand noble trees which form such mysteriouslypoetical backgrounds to his figures. Here helearnt to compose, to place his characters in avibrating atmosphere, and to base all hisgraceful imaginings on the solid foundation ofobservation of nature. His other discoverywas Rubens. He visited and revisited in theLuxembourg picture gallery the triumphantdisplay of the series of great colour-poemsthat relate Marie de Mdicis' life. At thesight of these masterpieces Watteau felt hisFlemish descent, his descent from a race ofcolourists, thrill and stir within him. Already,in the earlier works painted at Gillot's, theinfluence of the little Flemish masters can befelttheir manner of applying their toucheswith precision and a certain amount of hard-ness, and of putting in details upon a '^ ground which has been broadly, richly, and fluentlyprepared. But it was his contact with Rubenswhich finally revealed him to himself. Hecopied him with passion, and imitated him

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ANTOINE WATTEAUwith perfect frankness, joyfully reverting tohis race. But it would be wrong to concludefrom this that Watteau was only influenced bythe Flemish, to whom, in spite of his Frenchbirth, he belonged. It is evident indeed thathe was saturated with Rubens to such anextent that he may be considered as thepainter of all others who most contributed toturn aside his contemporaries from Italiantaste and the technique of the school ofFontainebleau, and to reinstate over Frenchpainting Rubens' vigorous and realistic in-fluence. But at this period of his life Watteau,in his passionate desire for knowledge, imitatedthe Italians as well. Only he turned, not tothe disfigurers and degenerate parodists ofthis fine school, but to the true masters, suchas Titian and \^eronesewitness the Antiopeof the Louvre. These influences, added tothat of Rubens, developed his own personalityin a direction totally opposed to all the prin-ciples of the seventeenth century. Thus, bycombining the execution of Rubens with thatof Titian, he succeeded in creating that inimit-able technique which is known to history asVVatteau's technique, and is the very quint-

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ANTOINE WATTEAUessence of French art. By the time he hadacquired this^ he had also possessed himself ofhis own personal dream^ purified and raised tolyrical heights by the mysterious power of hisillness, which, by keeping him morally alooffrom his age, was to gain him a special placein universal art and make him the precursor ofour most modern moods.

During his stay with Audran, Watteau's in-dividuality, which had been first aroused atGillot's, blossomed and expanded. In thisbrief existence everything was hurriedtheformation of his genius, the incidents of its de-velopment and the results it produced. Theessential feature of Watteau's life was thisfebrile haste of evolution, this kind of per-j)etual prescience of death. Caylus, who is fullof absurdities and whose judgment is mediocre,suddenly makes a profound and striking re-mark : We are about to behold, says he, his talent develop, but in the midst of anexistence agitated by restlessness and bij the dis-gust ivhich he felt for himself and all mankind.Here we have a revelation of the power ofphysiological influences over a great mind.Watteau's whole story lies here in a nutshell.

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ANTOINE WATTEAUHe heard death's urgent call, and this is whatwe divine throughout his whole career, in hisperpetual changes and in the inconceivable andfrantic haste of his last eleven years, duringwhich time he painted the imposing series ofhis masterpieces.

Whilst with Audran he developed toovigorously not to feel impatient at the idea ofremaining an ornament painter. One day heshowed his master a picture painted during hisleisure moments and representing troopsleaving for the war. This was the beginningof his second manner (the first deals withItalian comedy), a manner steeped in the littleFlemish masters ; during this period Watteau,by means of a gradually widening realism,arrived at the point of preserving in his smallcanvases all Rubens' admirable breadth, whileachieving a masterly originality of grouping.Audran was too clever not to understand thevalue of the picture, but he was anxious to keepa pupil whose help was so efficacious, and whowas so amazingly gifted as to execute his workquicker and better than his master. He there-fore artfully advised him not to enter upon apath in which he might lose his skill as de-

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THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS (Louvre)Photography Giraudon


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ANTOINE WATTEAUcorator. Watteau was quick-witted ; he felt howlittle he could depend on disinterested advicefrom Audran. As he was bent on leaving himin order to devote himself to original work, forwhich he now felt himself ripe, he lookedabout for a courteous excuse, not being able toallege a quarrel as in the case of Gillot. Hetherefore announced his intention of returningto Valenciennes to visit his family. In orderto pay for his journey he sold his militarypicture to Sirois, Gersaint's father-in-law, forsixty livres, and left Paris, in spite of allAudran's attempts to prevent him.At Valenciennes Watteau painted severalother military pictures, of marches, camps,cavalry, and guards. They are admirable fortheir execution, their truth, and their vivaciousgrace, and some of them are as fine pictoriallyspeaking as the most celebrated of his Pastorals.They illustrate camp-life with wit and anecdote.It is certain that it was the picturesque andamusing side of this life that particularly struckand delighted Watteau, but it is somewhatexaggerated to state, as the Goncourts do, thatWatteau shows himself in these pictures, as inall his others, a beautifier, a marvellous

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ANTOINE WATTEAUpainter of Utopias^ the most amiable and themost determined of liars. Watteau is notmore fanciful in these subjects than Wouver-mans or the other Dutch and Flemish paintersof military life^ and these camp scenes, in theirelegant and dissolute confusion, where thedainties of town have been carted to thesoldier's tent, and the fiddles of Lerida playmarches that lead the way to death where smartLa Tulipe struts and swaggers, and Manonflirts between two gun-shots, and a host oflittle love-birds flutter light-heartedly into themidst of war's stern discipline all this isindeed an authentic picture of the armies ofthe period, when men died heroically betweentwo witticismsthis, truly, is war in laceruflles. Watteau, moreover, worked fromnature.He soon tired of Valenciennes when he hadonce satisfactorily proved to his family that hisvocation was a genuine one. Without reckon-ing his humour, and the characteristic restless-ness of his disease, which were constantlyurging him to change of scene, he found atValenciennes neither stimulus to productionnor opportunities for showing his works. He

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ANTOINE WATTEAUtherefore returned to Paris^ where he wasbeginning to be known. The picture he hadsold to Sirois^ and another one of a halt whichhe had sent him later, had been seen and ap-preciated by some connoisseurs. Watteau wasseized with the desire of winning the Academyprize and going to Rome. He competed inthe year 1709, the subject being David grantingAbigail XabaTs pardon. The first prize wascarried off by Antoine Grison and Watteauonly received the second. This did not carrywith it the privilege of visiting Rome. Hedetermined, therefore, to continue studying inParis and to present some further works to thenotice of the Academy, in the hopes of obtain-ing its favour. For this purpose, in 1712, heventured, without a word, to exhibit the twopictures he had sold to Sirois, in a room throughwhich the Academicians were in the habit ofpassing. They were struck with astonishmentby these two pictures, and admired their vigorous colouring, and a certain harmonywhich made them appear the work of an oldmaster. The painter de la Fosse madeenquiries as to their author. It was discoveredthat he was a young and unknown painter, Avho

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ANTOINE WATTEAUbegged the members of the Academy to be sokind as to intercede in his favour for a pensionfrom the King, so that he might study in Ital3\M. de la Fosse was surprised, and sent forWatteau. Delighted by his extreme modestyand by the charm of his manners, he generouslydeclared that Watteau did not realise the extentof his talent and underrated his ability ; thatafter what he had accomplished alone, therewas no need for him to seek instruction inItaly ; that the Academicians were of opinionthat he knew more than they did, and wascapable of doing them honour ; so that, if hetook the proper steps, he would be accepted asa member of their society. He did so and wasimmediately received, Coypel being president.In consideration of his circumstances, theAcademy was even courteous enough to reducethe usual pecuniary present to the sum ofone hundred livres.

There is something extraordinary in thisadventure, which so unexpectedly alteredWatteau' s material prospects and, after somany years of extreme poverty, caused himto step in one moment out of embarrassmentand obscurity into fame. But everything in

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ANTOINE WATTEAUhis life is extraordinary^ and here again wemust recognise a fateful sign of that swiftdestiny which suddenly decided to bring hisgenius to light, only to plunge it nine yearslater into the obscurity of the grave. To aperson acquainted with the habits of theAcademy, its turn of mind, its traditions, itsroutine and its innumerable injustices, thereseems something little short of miraculous inthis spontaneous admission to its circle of ayoung man of twenty-eight, with neither friendsnor fortune, a young man who had not evenwon the Prix de Rome, but had come humblyto beg for help in his studies. This incident isunique of its kind, and does honour to theAcademy by the simplicity with which it tookplace on either side ; from one day to the nextit enabled Watteau to earn his living com-fortably, to become famous, and finally to giveus in his Pastorals (since it is by this trivialname that these profound poems are known)the measure of his radiant and melancholygenius.

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IIWatteau's life from 1712 to 1721His illnessVisits

to different friends, Crozat, Yleughels, Sirois, andGersaintHis journey to LondonHis last sta}^ atNogent-sur-Marne and his deathHow he was re-gretted, imitated, and finally deserted in common withhis contemporariesLastly, how he was rediscoveredand more admired for the superficial qualities of hisart than for the profoundness of his soul.

Watteau from this time forth set to work withrenewed energy. He was only definitely ad-mitted to the Academy on August 28th;, 1717.All accepted candidates were obliged on theirreception to present a work in the style of theone which had led to their election. Watteauwas behindhand^ not from indolence, but fromover-scrupulousness^ and had several times tobe reminded of the rules. Finally he producedhis work it Avas that unique masterpieceUEmbarquement jjour Cythcre.

During the same time he was working atthat host of drawings in pencil and in red

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ANTOINE WATTEAUchalk, and at those numerous pictures of whichUEmbarquement pour Cythere seems to be thesynthesis, and which form a kind of radianthalo of studies around it. Watteau's life wasbarren of events : he was growing more andmore ill, and his w ork became his sole passion ;he worked feverishly, particularly at his draw-ing, for he considered himself, above all, adraughtsman, thought little of his colouring,and only believed in his talent when he hada pencil in his hand. He did not marry, andhis biographers are silent as to his emotionalexperiences. Outside his work, the restless-ness of his moody and wayward existence con-tinued to accentuate itself. When we considerhis character later on, we shall find in it boththe effects of his disease and the psychologicalcauses that gave his art such an unutterablypathetic charm. He lived somewhat at hap-hazard, and showed an incredible contempt formoneynot so much the noble disinterested-ness of an artist, as that of a creature who nolonger belona^s to this world. The absence ofany information as to his love affairs in thecontemporary biographies, written by men whoknew him well and are lavish of details as to

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ANTOINE WATTEAUhis disposition^ shows us that this side of Hfemust have been insignificant in such a moribundexistence as Watteau's. His art, indeed, filledhis life to such an extent that we wonder howin so short a time he was able to complete sogreat a number of minutely executed works.There can have been no room for anythingelse during those nine years.He consented to go and live with a certainM. Crozat, a wealthy man who was fond of

artists and threw open to him a house filledwith curious and beautiful things, and particu-larly with drawings by the old masters,studies by Bassano, \'an Dyck, Titian, andRubens. Watteau was delighted and tookmuch pleasure in copying them. At the sametime he was engaged in decorating his host'sdining-room with pictures of the Four Seasons,which are executed with such spirit and atouch so sure in spite of its rapidity, that theyseem inspired by a presentiment of his end.In 1721 he painted the great and famouspicture known by the name of Gersaint's Sign.He told Gersaint that he wanted to unstiffenhis fingers, and offered to paint him a sign tohang outside the shop which the picture-dealer

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ANTOINE WATTEAUbad recently opened. ' I was somewhat reluct-ant/' says the latter naively^ in Lorangre'sCatalogue/' to satisfy Watteau^ for I greatlypreferred employing him in more seriousundertakings, but seeing that it would pleasehim, I consented. This marvellous work waspainted in eight days, or rather in eight morn-ings, for VVatteau's weak health only allowedof his working in the mornings. This is theonly work that a little tickled his vanity, andhe made no difficulty about admitting it to me.He left M. Crozat's house, where he was verycomfortable, out of a desire for complete inde-j)endence, and went to live with his friendMeughels (who afterwards became Principalof the Academy at Rome, where he died) ; hethen retired to a small apartment belongingto M. Sirois, and refused his address to peoplewho asked for it. Henceforth his detach-ment from the world became complete ; helived alone with his dreams and his illness,seized by that longing for solitude whichmodern medicine defines as a neuroticphenomenon accompanying phthisis. Hiscontempt for his material interests increased.When Cavlus advised him to be a little less

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ANTOINE WATTEAUneglectful of his affairs, he answered, Isn'tthe worst that can happen to me the hospital ?No one is refused admittance there. Itrequired a devoted friend like M. de Julienneto take charge of his earnings and, with theassistance of Gersaint, to save more than ninethousand livres for himfor Watteau alwaysconsidered himself over-paid and seemed to beignorant of the value of money.

After leaving Vleughels in 1718, hewandered about for some time, and as he wasat once both shy and confiding, it sometimeshappened that he was overreached. Someacquaintances having spoken well of Englandin his presence, he conceived a morbid desire tovisit it, in order to satisfy once more his passionfor perpetual change. He went there in 1719^stayed in London, painted there and had somesuccess, but fell so ill that he left. Needlessto say what harm this visit no doubt did to aconsumptive patient. He returned iller andmore exhausted than ever, and expressed adesire to recover his strength in the country ;this was after a six months' stay with Gersaint,during which time he painted his admirableSign.

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ANTOINE WATTEAUThe Abb Haranger persuaded M. le Fvre,

the intendant of Les Menus^ to lend him hishouse at Nogent. The celebrated RosalbaCarriera^ whom he much admired^ did him alast pleasure by painting his portrait. AtNogent, Watteau's health declined more andmore rapidly and he gave himself up entirelyto religion. His last work was a Ci'uci/ixionfor the cur of Nogent. It was to this curthat Watteau addressed the celebrated sayingwhich has often been quoted and fathered uponothers. When the worthy priest in his finalexhortations showed him a clumsily carvedcrucifix, Ah/' exclaimed the artist, '^ takeaway that crucifix. It pains me. How couldanyone treat my Master so shockingly ? Thelast moments of his life were emj)loyed in anact of kindness and in generously repairing aninjustice. Some time before, Watteau, in a fitof ill-temper, had dismissed his compatriot andpupil Pater. He now reproached himself withthis unkindness and even accused himself toGersaint of having been afraid of Pater's rivaltalent. This was evidently not the case;perhaps he was moved by a vague scruple,inspired by the recollection of similar feelings

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GlLLtr> .A.M.' Hi.-^ FAAiiLV (Wallace Collection)Photograph, Mansell \^ Co,


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ANTOINE WATTEAUwhich Gillot had once shown towards himselfand from which he had sufferedperhaps byhumiUty and magnanimity. Gersaint^ atWatteau's request, sent for Pater, and thedying man spent a whole month giving himadvice as to his art, in order to atone for hisformer anger. In a last access of vitalityWatteau imagined that his native air wouldsave him. It is well known that consumptivescling to the illusion of the benefit to be derivedfrom change of air. He begged Gersaint tomake preparations for the journey to Valen-ciennes and to sell his effects for this purpose.The sale produced 3000 livres, to which wereadded the 6000 saved by M. de Julienne atthe time of his visit to England. This sumwas merely destined to return to the sick man'sfamily. Watteau waited vainly for the momentin which he should have regained sufficientstrength to bear the move. He died almostsuddenly in Gersaint's arms on July 18th, 1721.He had not completed his thirty-seventh year.The devotion of a few friends, Crozat, Sirois,Vleughels, M. de Julienne, Gersaint, and Caylus

supported during his short existence one ofthe most unfortunate geniuses known to the

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ANTOINE WATTEAUhistory of art. M. de Julienne^ who idolisedhis paintings raised him the most durable ofmonuments by writing his Abrg de la V^iede Watteau and by taking the initiative insaving for posterity 350 of his drawings andstudies. These he had admirably engravedunder the title of Figures de diffrentscaractres and published in two volumes^ inan edition of 100 large paper copies. The'^ Mercure/' which, as a rule, paid littleattention to artists and their deaths, announcedWatteau' s in terms of admiration and regret.The artist's shy and retiring disposition didnot prevent his being sincerely lamented bythose who became sufficiently intimate withhim to learn to distinguish between the confid-ing goodness of his heart and the brusquenessdue to his illness. But it does not appearthat his death made any real impression on hiscontemporaries. Watteau departed with farless pomp than the least of those painters tothe King/' whose mere names are all we knowto-day. True, he died member of the RoyalAcademy, and was much appreciated by in-fluential amateurs ; but success came to himonly nine years before his death, and hisWD zj.9


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ANTOINE WATTEAUastonishinfr indifference to Avorldly matters,money, and honours, his frequent absences, hisill-health, all these causes contributed to limitthis success to the esteem of a chosen few.The prices fetched by his works remainedinsignificant ; we have seen how in his ownopinion they were always too high, for withincredible modesty he did not consider himselfa remarkable painter, but merely a gooddraughtsman. More than twenty years afterhis death, at Lorangre's sale, for whose cata-logue Gersaint took the opportunity of writingnotes about his friend, the highest price reachedwas 361 livres for a very important Concert.The prices did not go up until 1767, at thesale of M. de Julienne, who had bought mostof Watteau's principal pictures ; the FetesVnitiennes fetched 26 15 livres, the celebratedMezzeiin 700 livres ; and at the Blondel deGagny sale in 1776, the Champs Elyses wentup to 6515 livres. Nowadays even theseprices seem ridiculously small.

Watteau's life, therefore, consisted of twenty-three years of extreme poverty, four years ofcomparative obscurity, and nine years of un-ostentatious celebrity. His influence, however,

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MEZZETIN (Hermit.\ge Gallery)Photograph, Qiraudon


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ANTOINE WATTEAUwas destined to be immense throughout hiscentury, and it began immediately after hisdeath. He brought about a revokition instyle, in technique, and in the choice ofsubjectsin one word, he created the eigh-teenth century. Truth to tell, this requiressome qualification ; later on we shall attemptto show that his work was twofold, that it hadtwo })hases and two meanings. The individualmeaning and innermost spirit, which were theoutcome of the peculiar conditions of his illness,were not perceived by his generation, and yetit is because of them that Watteau appears tous truly great, personal, inimitable, and passion-ately interesting. This individual meaning,this innermost spirit, had nothing in commonwith the eighteenth century ideal ; an idealentirely inspired by the superficial qualities,the appearance and the scenery of his composi-tions, which were considered exquisite, butwere not suspected of possessing any depth.Watteau, coming as he did at the end of acentury, did not make his appearance merelyat a conventional date, which we arbitrarilyinsert in the uniform course of time ; hearrived at a really psychological moment,

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ANTOINE WATTEAUwhen the ideal of the century was dyingthe dull, allegorical, stilted century at amoment when everyone had been surfeitedwith severity and pompousness, and was long-ing for a more intimate art and a life of simplerelegance. During this transition from thedecadence of Louis XIV. to the Regency andthe reign of Louis XV.a real moral and socialtransitionWatteau's art supplied the neces-sary formula, and no one was more imitatedor less understood. His scenes from Italiancomedy and his Pastorals, works which areunique for the mysterious sadness of theirsmile, seemed to be merely smiling ; a wholeschool of superficial charmers derived fromthem. His work was perfectly understoodin the letter and absolutely misconceived in thespirit. For this reason, we may say that thewhole eighteenth century was made byWatteau, and yet that he remained its mostisolated phenomenon. There are three figuresin this strange century which dominate it,while at the same time they contradict itWatteau, Chardin, and La Tour. Chardin'scontribution was an intimist realism and aknowledge of the psychology of the poor ; La

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ANTOINE WATTEAUTour'Sj a profound analysis of the humansoul

; and Watteau's^ boundless dreams and ashuddering desire for the absolute. Not oneof these three men whose genius illuminatestheir age was really penetrated by it.

Watteau in his short life had time to provein magnificent style the possibility of divertingFrench art from the effete influence of Italianismtowards more naturally ethnological sources,towards the traditions of the North, towardsRubens and Ruysdael. He was the first, byreason of his Flemish descent, to show thepossibility of this path, which was followedafter him by Boucher, and under the guidanceof Fragonard, Loutherbourg and others, ledthe century to the threshold of the Revolution.This was his technical contribution. At thesame time he created the pictorial formula ofsentimental poetry adapted to his age. Inthe domain of literature this poetry remainedextremely mediocre, but Watteau straightwayraised it to sublime heights. It was his lotto be admired, and yet be translated by triflingmadrigals and namby-pamby eclogues, whichpretended, forsooth, to equal the loftinessand sumptuo-us *^^ morbidezza of his works.

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ANTOINE VVATTEAUStrange fate, and one which must alwaysattract critics After influencing his successors'art to the point of becoming (most unin-tentionally) responsible for the worst sickly-ing o'er of his style, Watteau was destinedto disappear in the reaction of David's pupilsand Ingres' school, and of the neo-Romanclassicism of the Consulate and Empire. L'Eju-harquement pour Cythre was relegated formany long years to a room in the Academy,where it was bombarded with bread pelletsby David's pupils ; while at the same time LaTour's portrait of Rousseau was sold for threefrancs, two of Chardin's portraits fetched /br/yfrancs (at the Lemoyne sale), and a bitter con-spiracy of hatred crushed out the very re-collection of the charm, mastery, and freedomof this generation of painters.The reaction of the second Romanticismwas needed to avenge the eighteenth century,and the bold and learned initiative of theGoncourt brothers was required to do it thatjustice which, strange to say, it had neverceased to find in England, at a moment whenFrench taste, under the empire of pseudo-classical prejudices, fondly attempted to deny

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ANTOINE WATTEAUits most delightful representatives. Watteauthen showed himself in all the youthful fresh-ness and ingenuous charm of his soul ; thepowerful originality of his masterly techniqueand his importance as head of a school and asa great artistic personality, rich enough to de-termine French production during eighty years^became manifest. But at the very momentof the re-apparition of the consumptive geniusin the history of art^ when Baudelaire, in acelebrated poem^ was placing him among the beacons of humanity, a confusion arosebetween Watteau and his pupils, notwith-standing the distinction which the Goncourtspointed out Avith much critical acumen. Thegrace and supple elegance and tenderness ofWatteau's works deceived his admirers of theyear I860 as they had deceived those of 1720,and hid from them his inmost soul. He wasconsidered much as a Lancret or a Pater,though more talented than either ; peoplementioned him in the same breath as Boucher,without perceiving the immense differencebetween the two men. In comparing himwith Fragonard they erred less, for Fragonardis the only painter of the eighteenth century

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ANTOINE WATTEAUin whom Watteaii's soul was re-incarnated fora fleeting moment^ when he was painting forMadame du Barry the celebrated series knownas the Grasse decorations. But people failedto understand that Watteau was not only moi'etalented than all these men^ but also completelydifferent from them, and that he contributedto art an element that was altogether ex-cej)tional and unexpected, namely, intellectualdistinction, the representation of melancholyand love as they are conceived in the meta-physical poetry of our own time under thename of maladie de l'infini.

It is this difference between Watteau andhis age which we shall seek to determine here,so as to react against a judgment which eu-logises him without discrimination, followinghard upon one which depreciated him in-iquitously. Nowadays Watteau has beenrescued from silence, from detestation, andfrom oblivion ; his technique is admired ; hispart in the evolution of French art defined ;his works are shining lights in all the greatgalleries of the world. Now^ therefore, thatthe essential is secured, it is time to go backto the details, and we may be allowed to

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ANTOINE WATTEAUdestroy the legend of the Watteaii of courtlyshepherds, the painter of graces and laughter^the petit-maitre whose wonderful skill illus-trated sentimental trifles^ eclogues, and idylls.All this is ornament and appearance ; thereis more than this in Watteau ; there is athought in him, a poignant sadness, whichputs him on a level with the greatest oflyrical poets ; dignity masks his despair withdiscretion ; the presentiment of death lingersamidst his twilights of rose and blue ; a touchof the eternal mystery is on him ; here we havethe embodiment of Dreams in an age whichwas witty, subtle, and sensual, but which wouldhave failed to understand the word. In short,here we have a genius w ith a strain of consump-tion which shows itself only to render visiblethat sensation of the absolute with which itinspires all its victims. All Watteau's char-acters seem to ask each other with wearygrace and languid renunciation that terriblequestion of despairing love which the greatestof modern artists puts in the mouth of Isolde :Tristan, must we live }

This is what we shall attempt to show inour analysis of Watteau's soul, while at the

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ANTOINE WATTEAUsame time paying due recognition to histechnique, which created the eighteenthcentury, influenced Delacroix, and madepossible certain of the discoveries of Impres-sionist art in the last forty years of thenineteenth century.

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IllScenes from Italian comedy and pictures of military life.Italian comedy with its characters andcostumes served VVatteau only as a pretextfor his own imagination. Perhaps he acquiredthis taste for theatrical scenes during the shorttime he spent working with Mtayer at theopera. Perhaps his stay with Gillot confirmedthe disposition. We may safely assume so.But we must say at once that the artist'srendering of actual sights was an interpretationand in no wise a translation. Italian comedywas pretty, dainty, droll, but it never had thataspect of high poetry with which the tendermagic of Watteau clothed it.From this period we find in Watteau's artthat faculty for transfiguration which is thesign of genius and is totally different fromwhat the Goncourts call '^'^ lying. Watteaulays hold of reality and transmutes it into

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ANTOINE WATTEAUsomething fine and rare, which yet remainstrue and harmonious. He constructs a wholeworld of fantasy, and it is a world that mightexist. It is the world Watteau saw with theeye of that extraordinary mind which fate hadplaced in the sickly body doomed to an un-timely end.When the seventeenth century was at itssullenest, the artist appeared with his young

dream. The cruel reverses of 1709, war andfamine, the decrepitude of the aged and em-bittered monarch, and the underhandand bigotedrule of Mme. de Maintenon, cast a dark cloudof ennui, of sour and spiteful sadness, overa ceremonious court weary of its own pomp. Itseemed as though there remained in art not asingle spontaneous or lively sentiment. Thepseudo-heroism of historical painting lay likean oppression on men's souls. They languishedfor a smiling art which should be free frombombast and pretentious symbolism, but theydared say nothing through terror of the king.Italian comedy then appeared as the sole dis-traction. It was not ^^ noble, but it wasamusing, and on that account infinitelyprecious to the court and to amateurs of art.

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ANTOINE WATTEAUWatteau was not born a historical painter,which is as much as to say that at that periodhe could never hope to pass for a great painter ;he was therefore merely a master of the secondrank, and comedy seemed to afford an openingfor his talent.The theme, moreover, was charming, andWatteau returned to it again and again. Ifhis military pictures occupied only a shortperiod of his life, from his stay with Audran tohis return from ^^alenciennes, his Italian sceneswere continued contemporaneously with hisPastorals until the end, and served as a transi-tion to the pictures which are entirely imaginaryand in which he went beyond the Italian dis-guises and invented a costume, known only tohimself and resembling neither the fashions ofItaly nor those of the French regency.

^^ Laughter as of dancers in the Bergamasque,write the Goncourts in a brilliant passage,such is the laughter, such the high spirits,the action and the movement of Watteau'spoems. Here she comes, madcap Folly, withher tinkling bells And as she runs, therewaken at her steps sounds of gaiety,breaths of Zephyr, noise and laughter.

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ANTOINE WATTEAURufFs and caps, buff jerkins and daggers, tunicsand capes, come and go. Here rush past atroop of jesters, bringing with them throughthe shadows the rainbow hues of their dressand the carnival of human passions. Strangemotley-coloured family, clothed in sunshineand silken-striped Here is one whose maskis the night Look another paints his cheekswith the moon Harlequin, as graceful as apen- stroke of Parmigiano's Pierrot, his armsstraight to his sides like the letter * i ' Tar-taglios and Scapins, and Cassandras andDoctors, and the favourite Mezzetin, big andbrown and smiling, always to the fore, his capon the back of his head, zebra-coated from topto toe, as proud as a lord and as fat as Silenus.The Spirit of Italian Comedy, nose in air andfeet firmly planted, thrums the guitar in everyscene ; 'tis the duet of Gilles and Columbinethat makes the music and the song of Watteau'spiece. How charming this marriage of thequaint and sparkling mode of Italy with themode of the youthful eighteenth century And there springs more adorable stillfromthis union and these nuptials the mode ofWatteau Free and adventurous, vagrant andWE 6$


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ANTOINE WATTEAUhappy, how it delights in all that is new,and ' piquant,' and provocative Oh artist-cutter from your playful scissors there hascome to us both the ' sweet neglect,' and thebravery of attire, the morning's easy careless-ness, the afternoon's fine raiment. Oh fairyscissors you dower the times to come withpatterns from the Arabian Nights ; Mme.de Pompadour owes you the nglig that bearsher name. How voluptuously you slipped andcut amidst the silvery satin Saucily tucked-up skirts, ravishing liquefaction of clothes,'roguish prisons of tight-laced bodices, silkenbaskets for rosy-blooming flesh Oh be-ribboned scissors of Watteau, what a daintyrealm of coquetryyou cut out of the Maintenon'srealm of prudery To introduce such figures into painting was

real audacity. Gillot had done it unpreten-tiously in vignettes and small illustrations.We must realise the style of the period inorder to understand how great Watteau'saudacity was. Le Brun's school had en-cumbered art with helmeted heroes andpseudo- antique muses, with a jumble ofsymbolical attributes, torches, and scales, and

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ANTOINE WATTEAUbows, and blades, and horns of abundance.Every picture was a combination of riddlesand picture puzzles, inconceivably precious instyle. Historical painting, which also includedmythological scenes, was the only domainof what was called grand art. The resthad not the honour of counting, and genrepictures were considered an inferior grade ofwork. The taste of II Primaticcio, of Rosso, andof the Italians of the decadence finally foundin Bernini the expression of its worst defects.By an effort of independence which makes amemorable date in the history of French art,the Versailles sculptors had begun to protestagainst this intrusion of a degenerate Italianism,by forcing Bernini (who had been sent for byLouis XIV.) to return to Rome. This groupof admirable artists, Regnaudin, Tubi, Le Gros,Le Hongre, Van Clve, Raon, Honzeau, andBallon had carried out Le Brun's plans in theWater Parterre and in the park. But theyhad managed to give their statues so muchlife and expression and so much French gracethat, notwithstanding the pompousness andallegorical hotch-potch of the designs theywere commissioned to execute, the general

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ANTOINE WATTEAUeffect of their marble and bronze decorationsbore witness to a triumphant revival of nativeoriginality. This example, however, had notyet been followed by the paintersLemoynehad not yet painted the Plafond d Herculewhich was to prove a revolution in thepictorial decoration of \'ersailles, and Vanloohad not yet made his appearance.

It was by the intervention of Watteau'ssubjects, in spite of their seeming unimport-ance and modesty, that an entirely fresh artwas created.

Doubtless they were low, these subjectsin which a young man ventured to representGilles' blouse, and Mezzetin's striped over-all,and the Doctor's black cap, and Columbine'sfrills, and Harlequin's parti-coloured tights ;truly an exquisite mingling of colours, but onethat was not permitted by Academic art, whichwas governed by a set of moral and psychologicalmaxims, and insisted above all that every pictureshould be didactic and a proper subject foranalysis and edifying comments, rather than apleasure to the eyes. It needed all Watteau'sgift of poetical transfiguration to get theseworks accepted at all ; thev merely represented68'


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THE xMANDOLIN-PLAYER (Chantilly;Photograph, Braun, Clment \Z^ Cie, Dornach, Paris, and New Tork


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ANTOINE WATTEAUstrolling players^ actors of farce, second-ratemummers who were the delight of the ground-lings, but were looked down upon by theregular servants of the king. So audacious,indeed, was the innovation that, in all proba-bility, Watteau would not have ventured uponit had he reflected. He painted these thingsbecause he loved them, at a time Avhen he wasnothing but an obscure collaborator of Gillotand Audran, and totally unknown. Fortyyears later Greuze undertook the task of mak-ing characterised studies of the poorer classes,with the deliberate intention of setting themup as the heroes of a style of painting whichshould exalt middle-class virtue in opj)ositionto the erotic art of Boucher and Baudoin. ButWatteau's case was very different. He had nodesire to create a school or to protest againstacademic art in the name of a new conception.He cared for little else but to express hisinward dreams with the freedom of a lonely anddisinterested artist. It was his contemporarieswho sought him out, fastened upon his art andhailed in it the formula of the future. Forspontaneous as it was, it answered to a host ofambient desires. And this is the sole reason

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ANTOINE WATTEAUthat the work of this unknown consumptive,poor, shy, and friendless, did not disappear, aslogic would seem to have demanded.These scenes of Italian comedy have supremebeauty. They possess all the qualities of greatmasterpieces in small dimensions noblesimplicity of landscape, truth of expression,life and flexibility of drawing, originality ofgrouping, a profound knowledge of the rela-tionship between the figures and the scenery,exquisite colouring and masterly characterisa-tion of types ; the combination of all thesequalities reveals a painter who possesses themost subtle secrets of his craft and an imag-ination of surprising sensibility. Veronese'sinfluence is visible in the distribution of themasses and in the diff used light of the atmo-sphere ; Titian's in the golden richness of theflesh tones and in the plane architecture ;Ruysdael's is apparent in the management ofthe stately clouds and tufted trees. Theseopen-air scenes are based on an intense feelingfor nature, and are realistic to a degree undreamtof by the official school. Nothing can befurther removed from the wretched artificialityof the historical painters, who placed their

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ANTOINE WATTEAUheroes in conventional and frightful landscapes.Watteau was as greatly preoccupied with theaccuracy of his effects as Ruysdael, and whenwe study his technique in more detail we shallsee that this preoccupation led him to a dis-covery of capital importancenamely^ thatof the decomposition of tonesa discovery bywhich he became the inventor of impressionismand the link that connects Ruysdael and ClaudeLorrain w'ith Turner^ Monticelli and ClaudeMonet.At times Titian's influence can be seen in

his preference for gold and amber tones.Watteau especially enjoyed painting the fadingsplendours of twilight and steeping the outlinesof his lofty thickets and his blue horizons in awarm and liquid gold, and this at a time whenpainters made an exaggerated use of frigidtones and were actually imitating tapestry andtempera. Watteau was an enthusiastic admirerof Titian's ardent and sensuous palette and isparticularly inspired by it in his nudes. TheJupiter and Ajitiope of the Louvre gives us anepitome of this Venetian influence. The lakes,the thickness of colour in the high lights,the richly flowing blonde paint of the flesh, the

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ANTOINE WATTEAUdark and tawny shadowsnone of these thingsare in any way characteristic of the French artof the latter end of the seventeenth century^nor of the pallid languor of Albano. Theyshow rather a faithful imitation of Titian^ butan imitation of startling genius, done with apower that re-creates and is the herald of apersonal technique. From Veronese, Watteautook with astonishing dexterity some of hiseffects of subdued light. When he wishes,indeed, this painter of glowing skies, and richbrowns, and stormy gleams, and sombre greens,becomes a skilful manipulator of light yellowsand greys. He even notes in some of Veronese'sskies the typical trait of those horizontal cloudsthat are characteristic of the atmosphere ofVenice, while in Ruysdael's Dutch skies theclouds rise from the ground and spread in avertical direction towards the zenith. TheDresden Watteaus show still more clearly hisaffinity to Veronese and his comprehension ofcold tones, and the Goncourts are right whenthey observe that these light and somewhatacid colour schemes have been wrongly attri-buted to Pater without having been noticed inthese works of Watteau's. He did not even,

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ANTOINE WATTEAUsay they, leave his pupil the proprietorshipof two or three tones of colour. Theymight have gone further and added thatWatteau left no one the proprietorship of anysingle discovery that has been made in paintingsince his day. He felt and discovered every-thing himself, and when, at the latter end ofthe century, I ragonard again painted pictureswith cold lights, he did no more than approacha style in which Watteau had already createdmasterpieces.

In his scenes from Italian comedy there isyet another protest of a different order. Itwas at the moment that the Jesuits and Mme.de Maintenon were bringing about the expulsionof the Italian comedians whose licentious farcesoffended the prudery of the court, that Watteauset about painting them. We behold them inhis pictures, wandering or resting in the fields,supping or dancing, improvising torch-lightserenades, or diverting themselves by playingat parades. Their whole story is set forth.But there lies another meaning beyond theanecdotic history of these irresponsiblecharmers whose laisser-aller amused Watteauin his illness. The artist was already thinking

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VENUS AND LOVE (Cuantihy)Photograph, Bratin, Clment ^ C'te, Dornach, Paris, ana Neiv York


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ANTOINE WATTEAUof transforming these beings into the inhabit-ants of that chimerical world of which he wasbeginning to have glimpses^ the world whichhe was to create later on in his Pastorals^ andwhich is so singularly akin to Shakespeare'sdream world of ^'enetian fantasy. In Watteau'sgreatest poems the motley and amusing shapesof his comedians and coquettes reappear.It was their costumes that supplied theelements for the apparelling of his heroes oflove and melancholy. It was through themthat he effected his transition from the real tothe ideal world, and to show his gratitude heimmortalised them. It was thanks to themthat he insensibly abandoned the realism oflittle genre pictures and succeeded in invent-ing that pure, strange, metaphysical landwhose lyrical immateriality equals and perhapssurpasses Edgar Poe' s most abstract dreams,such as ^'The Island of the Fay.

Watteau's military pictures show anotherside of his talent. They were immediatelyunderstood and appreciated. The artist owedto two of them his reception by the Academy.Caylus gives them the highest praise. Theyare very few in number and only thirteen of

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ANTOINE WATTEAUthem are known to have been engraved byCochin, Moyreau, Crpy, Ravenet, Scotin,Thomassin, Baron, and Diipin. They areentirely Flemish as regards their technique,and sometimes, in their modest dimensions, areas broadly painted as the canvases of Rubens.M. Eugne Carrire, in particular, has one inhis possession of the most attractive workman-ship. In these works, Watteau is the directsuccessor of the little Dutch military paintersand of the Flemish ^'^intimists. He does notpaint actual war like Wouvermans, or later on,Loutherbourg and Casanove. He restrictshimself to representing camp-life, halts, andimprovised suppers, vivandires and un-saddled horses, guards drinking and gambling,in a word, all the disorder of that gallant andlicentious army which he saw encamped out-side Valenciennes. It is realism, but realismtempered by constant fancy and grace. '^ Herewe find, to quote the Goncourts once more, braids and decorations, war dressed up in itsSunday best and noisily passing to the soundof stirrup-cups and with hope on the crupper ;regrets drowned in wine, the clink of glassesand the shaking of hands ; beplumed mules,

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ANTOINE WATTEAUchance-born children clinn;ing to their mothers'breasts ; packs of cards^ out-of-door kitchens,little scullions clad in white, officers' trunksgaping for their masters' toilette, fresh youngbeauties stepping down from their waggons withtheir dainty lace head-dresses all unruffled.And here again we trace that strange gift fortransfiguration which gradually developed inWatteau's soul Avhilst he was scrupulouslystudying and preparing his future techniquethat technique which was a combination ofTitian and Rubens and Ruysdael, and orna-mental art, and jottings at the theatre andin the street, and which ended by becomingat once individual and inimitable. Here toowe can trace that mysterious growth of refinedelegance which nothing can explain, unless itbe the sad and lovely gift of pain and suffering.He was the son of poor folk, of artisans, ayoung man condemned to a life of poverty, oflowly occupations and menial employment.Evidently neither his circumstances nor hisbirth could have made him capable of acquir-ing that elegance which is only given by theusage of society, by birth and bringing upamidst beautiful and luxurious surroundings,

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ANTOINE WATTEAUamidst works of art and wealthy women. Allthis must have been in-born in Watteau ; hemust have divined and invented it by a strokeof genius and by native predisposition ; and allthe time in his attic of the Pont Notre-Dameas he was sadly turning out his pictures of StNicholas, he was also forging slowly in hisfevered brain a dream of art, the tenderest,the most dazzling, the most deliciously aristo-cratic that painting perhaps has ever known.

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IVWatteau's Pastorals or Fetes GalantesTheir character

of aloofness from time and placeHis technique ; howit is the forerunner of modern impressionism by itsdivision of tones.

Thus Watteau's first two phases as the painterof Italian comedy and then of camp scenes,are not the transformations of an artist seekinghis true bent, but the necessary and dehberatetechnical preparation for his third phase, aspainter of the Pastorals. It is thanks to theearlier works that he was able to hit upon thequalities that go to make up his most importantcompositions and to arrive at the arrangementof his landscapes ; it was these early works thatlaid the solid basis of realism on which hisdream, strengthened by long and serious obser-vation of nature, was subsequently able to rearitself without losing stability ; finally, it wasthrough them that he was able to try hisstrength, allocate the diverse influences of

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ANTOINE WATTEAUItaly and Flanders and discover the secret ofhis own originality. Few artists' careers havebeen so logically ordered. Watteau's life wasvery shorty but his ardour, the rapidity of hiscomprehension, his passion for work, his giftof divination, and above all the chastity of hissolitary and uneventful existence, compensatedfor the briefness of the time allowed him bydeath.

His Pastorales Galantes, which, truth totell, are neither pastoral nor gallant, as weunderstand the words, constitute the mostimportant part of Watteau's work. They area vast series of poems (more than eighty ofthem have been engraved), whose titles rarelycorrespond to any precise anecdote. In anycase the anecdote is of no importance. Wemust regard them only as representing certainpersons gathered together in certain places.This certainly does not mean that Watteauwas incapable of illustrating the actions de-noted by his titles, nor that, like Monticellilater on, he reduced his figures to mereharmonious patches of colour arbitrarilygrouped. On the contrary, Watteau tells histales with the requisite clearness, wit, malice,

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THE FALSE STEP (Louvre)Photograph.) Girauaon


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ANTOINE WATTEAUand vivacity. But the art^ the splendour ofthe colouring, the perfection of the form, andthe lyrical atmosphere are so infinitely superiorto the subjects represented, that we can thinkof these no longer. Watteau's '^^ Ftes Galanteshave no connection with those of Boucher, orof the other eighteenth century masters whoimitated the model set by Watteau. Theyshow indeed the same assemblages of coquettesand beaux, the same beribboned and bedeckedvillagers, the same curtsies and bows, the sametender or daring gestures, and the sameprettiness of country scenes. But in thelatter painters the anecdote remains theessential motive of the picture, every portionof which is designed to accentuate it. InWatteau we never give it a thought, so entirelydoes his marvellous execution, and above allhis pure and intangible spirit, subdue ourminds with an ever intenser thrill and power.If Watteau in his Faiur Pas seems inclined toprovoke a smile at a young woman who hasstumbled in the grass and is being helped upby her lover in a somewhat suggestive manner,we feel in a moment that the episode is un-interesting. We are filled Mith wonder at the

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ANTOINE WATTEAUwhite nape of the neck^ at the twist of thehair^ at the delicate tones of the dress^, and theunspeakable grace of its folds, at the lover'shand, which is a prodigy of painting, and atthe sombre beauty of the background. Theseare the things that matter. In Watteau atevery turn the smallness of the subject isswallowed up by the greatness of the painting ;the sight of skill as accomplished as that ofthe most celebrated masters holds us charmedand bound.An extraordinary influence emanates fromthese works. We straightway enter an un-known world, and while we are seized uponby the magnetic forces of beauty

Antoine Watteau (1684-1721); - Mauclair, Camille, 1872

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Transcript of Antoine Watteau (1684-1721); - Mauclair, Camille, 1872