18th Century French Painters

What is your name?

Jean-Antoinne Watteau

When were you born?

October,  1684

Where were you born?

Valenciennes

What artits do you admire?

Rubens, Veronese, Titian

What kind of things do you like painting?

I like painting people doing simple things. I paint lovers, clowns, townspeople...  I like romantic and dreamy backgrounds. I like to dress my people in beautiful costumes. Some people call my style Fete Galante. I also like painting landscapes.

Is there a name for your painting style?

Rococo

What is your own favourite painting? Why?

(Personal comments)

What is your name?

Jacques Louis David

When were you born?

30 August 1748

Where were you born?

Paris, France

What artits/people do you admire?

Napoleon

What kind of things do you like painting?

I like painting scenes from French political life. I defend the French Revolution. I belief in honesty, duty and self-sacrifice and I want my pictures to reflect what I believe in.

Is there a name for your painting style?

Neoclassical

What is your own favourite painting? Why?

What is your name?

Eugène Delacroix

When were you born?

April 26, 1798

Where were you born?

Charenton-Saint Maurice

What artits/people do you admire?

Rubens, Veronesse, Gainsborough

What kind of things do you like painting?

I like colourful paintings with people and things arranged in an interesting composition. I like exoticism and paintings which express emotion

Is there a name for your painting style?

Romantic

What is your own favourite painting? Why?

What is happening in the picture?

A man sitting on a stone bench is playing a guitar.

Can you describe the picture?

There is a man sitting on a bench. It looks like a garden. There are some trees and plants in the background and a female sculpture. There is a wall on the right. It looks like a Greek or a Roman building. The man playing the guitar is dressed in a stripped, silky  shirt and matching breeches. He is wearing white ruffles around his neck and his wrists.  He is wearing beige shoes with a pink pompom. He is also wearing a silk pinkish tunic around his head.

Is it a realistic picture?

Not exactly. The elements are realistic but the composition is too careful.

What is/are the most important element/s in the picture?

The man with the guitar.

Are there any contrasts in the picture?

The Mezzetin is painted in bright, pastel colours. The background is more shady.

What colours dominate the picture?

Pastel colours.

What style/s does the artist use in the picture? How can you tell?

Rococo. The use of pastel colours, the clothes and the theme are Rococo although the sculpture and the building point at Rococo.

Why is the picture called ________________?

A Mezzetin or Mezzetino is an Italian character in La Commedia dell’ Arte. He likes music and flirting with women and sometimes he can be mischievous.

Why did the artist paint the picture like this?

He likes to paint bucolic scenes with theatrical elements in it. The picture is frivolous but also melancholic. 

What is happening in the picture?

Some men are gathered in a room around another a man who is sitting on a bed.

Can you describe the picture?

In the picture there are many old men who seem sad. Some are with their head down, others are looking at another man who is sitting on a bed in the middle of the picture. Two men are leaning against the wall grieving. The men are dressed in tunics. The room is dark and there are some very small windows with bars in the background. There are some chains on the floor. It looks like a cell in a prison. In the background, by the widows, there are some stairs and some men are going up. One is waving goodbye. The old man in the middle has a beard and is wearing a white robe. He seems to be addressing his friends. His left arm is up, as if to stress some point he was making. His right arm reaches out towards a small bowl which another man is holding. 

Is it a realistic picture?

The figures look too robust and athletic to be old and middle-aged men but the scene seems realistic enough.

What is/are the most important element/s in the picture?

The man in the white robe.

Are there any contrasts in the picture?

Yes, the white robe is quite bright and it contrasts with other brigh robes around it, red and blue and golden yellos. The walls are grey and grim and the background is quite dark. 

What colours dominate the picture?

The bright white and red colours and, to a lesser extent, all the other colours in the men’s tunics.

What style/s does the artist use in the picture? How can you tell?

Neoclassical. The figures seem sculptures, Socrates’s white robe looks like marble. There is an interest in the human body shown in the torso of Socrates and the legs of some of the men. 

Why is the picture called ________________?

It describes the moments before the death of Socrates, who had been condemned to death or exile by the govern of Athens because they did not approve of his teaching methods. Socrates chose death to exile.

Why did the artist paint the picture like this?

David wanted to show the dignity and courage of Socrates and the support his friends and disciples gave him. He does that by contrasting the bright colours of the tunics with the dim colours of the prison. 

What is happening in the picture?

Two men, one on horseback one on foot,  are holding the body of a woman. Another man on horse is coming towards them.

Can you describe the picture?

At the background, a castle is on fire. On the right, a man riding a horse and dressed in a coat of armour is galloping towards two other men on the left of the picture. These seem surprised and eager to get the body of the woman on the horseback. The men are dressed with turbans. The woman seems to have fainted. 

Is it a realistic picture?

It looks a bit fantastic because of the colours and the way the figures turn and pose but, otherwise.

What is/are the most important element/s in the picture?

The woman and the two men who are holding her.

Are there any contrasts in the picture?

The womans neckline, which shows the bare skin and the white cloak that the rider on the left is wearing contrast with all the other darker colours.

What colours dominate the picture?

The red saddle , the white cloak, the woman’s blue skirt. 

What style/s does the artist use in the picture? How can you tell?

Romantic. The theme: the exotic Arabs kidnapping the lady and the Christian hero who is in love with her. The stress on movement –the two Arabs turning round, the speeding horse, the nervousness of the other horse-, the texture of the clothes and its colours, not pastel as Rococo but bright and sumptuous.

Why is the picture called ________________?

The picture portrays a scene in Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, that of the Abduction of Rebecca. The Christian knight who was in love with her asked two Saracen slaves to kidnap her. 

Why did the artist paint the picture like this?

Romantic artists were interested in exotic themes, in the mixture of fantasy and history. They were also interested in movement and colour.