Watteau, Jean-Antoine 1684-1721. French
Rococo painter. He developed a new category
of genre painting known as the fete galante,
scenes of a kind of aristocratic pastoral
fantasy world. One of these pictures, The
Embarkation for Cythera 1717 (Louvre, Paris),
won him membership in the French Academy.
Watteau was born in Valenciennes. At first
inspired by Flemish genre painters, he
produced tavern and military scenes. His
early years in Paris, from 1702, introduced
him to fashionable French paintings and in
particular to decorative styles and
theatrical design. He was also influenced by
Giorgione and Rubens.