DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0307
FRENCH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 281
a primitive progeny, the native inhabitants of the mountains and
woodlands of the genial climate of Greece and of that Golden Age when
Hellas and Asia Minor may be supposed to have been overspread with
aboriginal forests and life was careless resignation to present enjoy-
ment.”
From Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), landscape-
painter of idealized Classic scenes, poetic in spirit and suffused with
dreamful, golden light, the Eighteenth Century French painters may
be said to have found their fountain-head of inspiration.
LA DANSE.
Antoine Watteau. Collection of
(1684-1721). Mr. Charles A. Wimpfheimer.
With the exception of the superb Embarquement pour Vile de Cythere,
we do not think of individual paintings of Watteau. We consider his
work as a whole and we have a composite picture in our minds of
assemblies galantes under the trees in beautiful parks and gardens.
Although he derived his themes from his master, Gillot, who was
painting all the fashionable follies and fancies of the time, Watteau
surpassed him so entirely in his approach to these subjects, as well
as in his technique, that we are wont to look upon Watteau as the
originator of fetes champetres, pastorales galantes, concerts champetres,
monkeys in all kinds of attitudes and costumes satirizing the modes
and manners of the day, ladies and gentlemen playing Blind Man’s
Buff {Colin Maillard) under the trees, ladies swinging or flirting with
their fans, love-scenes beside statues in leafy dells, members of the
Italian Comedy—Pierrot, Arlequin, Scaramouche, Mezetin, Colum-
bine, and Scalpin—and charming people making music or dancing
under the trees.
This characteristic picture which came from the S. R. Bertron
Collection to its present owner, is a charming illustration of Watteau’s
style. Here we have dancing and music and merry conversation.
The light is concentrated on the chief figure—the dancer—clad in
that white satin that Watteau painted so marvellously. But why
a primitive progeny, the native inhabitants of the mountains and
woodlands of the genial climate of Greece and of that Golden Age when
Hellas and Asia Minor may be supposed to have been overspread with
aboriginal forests and life was careless resignation to present enjoy-
ment.”
From Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), landscape-
painter of idealized Classic scenes, poetic in spirit and suffused with
dreamful, golden light, the Eighteenth Century French painters may
be said to have found their fountain-head of inspiration.
LA DANSE.
Antoine Watteau. Collection of
(1684-1721). Mr. Charles A. Wimpfheimer.
With the exception of the superb Embarquement pour Vile de Cythere,
we do not think of individual paintings of Watteau. We consider his
work as a whole and we have a composite picture in our minds of
assemblies galantes under the trees in beautiful parks and gardens.
Although he derived his themes from his master, Gillot, who was
painting all the fashionable follies and fancies of the time, Watteau
surpassed him so entirely in his approach to these subjects, as well
as in his technique, that we are wont to look upon Watteau as the
originator of fetes champetres, pastorales galantes, concerts champetres,
monkeys in all kinds of attitudes and costumes satirizing the modes
and manners of the day, ladies and gentlemen playing Blind Man’s
Buff {Colin Maillard) under the trees, ladies swinging or flirting with
their fans, love-scenes beside statues in leafy dells, members of the
Italian Comedy—Pierrot, Arlequin, Scaramouche, Mezetin, Colum-
bine, and Scalpin—and charming people making music or dancing
under the trees.
This characteristic picture which came from the S. R. Bertron
Collection to its present owner, is a charming illustration of Watteau’s
style. Here we have dancing and music and merry conversation.
The light is concentrated on the chief figure—the dancer—clad in
that white satin that Watteau painted so marvellously. But why