"Paul et Virginie by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The exchange of ideas with other countries also increased. British ideas were particularly important, particularly such ideas as constitutional monarchy and romanticism, which greatly influenced French writers, particularly in the following century. The visual arts of the 18th century were highly decorative and oriented toward giving pleasure, as exemplified by the Regency Style and Louis XV Style, and the paintings of François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Watteau and Chardin, and portrait painters Quentin de La Tour, Nattier and Van Loo. Toward the end of the century, a more sober style appeared, aimed at"
"taste for the picturesque in details; curves and counter-curves; and dissymmetry which replaced the movement of the baroque with exuberance, though the French ""rocaille"" never reached the extravagance of the Germanic rococo. The leading proponent was Antoine Watteau, particularly in ""Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera"" (1717), Louvre, in a genre called ""Fête Galante"" depicting scenes of young nobles gathered together to celebrate in a pastoral setting. Watteau died in 1721 at the age of thirty-seven, but his work continued to have influence through the rest of the century. The ""Pilgrimage to Cythera"" painting was purchased by Frederick the Great"
"and furniture also existed in painting. Rocaillle painting turned toward lighters subjects, like the ""fêtes galantes"", theater settings, pleasant mythological narratives and the female nude. Most of the times the moralising sides of myths or history paintings are omitted and the accent is put on the decorative and pleasant aspect of the scenes depicted. Paintings from the period show an emphasis more on color than drawing, with apparent brush strokes and very colorful scenes. Important French painters from this period include Antoine Watteau, considered the inventor of the ""fête galante"", Nicolas Lancret and François Boucher. The Louis XV style of"
"Évariste Vital Luminais Évariste Vital Luminais (; 13 October 1821 – 10 or 15 May 1896) was a French painter. He is best known for works depicting early French history and is sometimes called ""the painter of the Gauls"". Luminais was born in Nantes into a parliamentary and legal family. His great-grandfather Michel Luminais was an official in the Vendée; his grandfather Michel-Pierre Luminais represented the Vendée in parliament from 1799 to 1803; and his father, René Marie Luminais, represented Loire-Inférieure from 1831 to 1834 and Indre-et-Loire from 1848 to 1849. Aware of his natural artistic talent, his family sent"
"of Prussia in 1752 or 1765 to decorate his palace of Charlottenberg in Berlin. The successor of Watteau and the ""Féte Galante"" in decorative painting was François Boucher (1703–1770), the favorite painter of Madame de Pompadour. His work included the sensual ""Toilette de Venus"" (1746), which became one of the best known examples of the style. Boucher participated in all of the genres of the time, designing tapestries, models for porcelain sculpture, set decorations for the Paris opera and ""opera-comique"", and decor for the Fair of Saint-Laurent. Other important painters of the ""Fête Galante"" style included Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste"
"Jean-Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (; baptised October 10, 1684 – died July 18, 1721), better known as Antoine Watteau, was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens. He revitalized the waning Baroque style, shifting it to the less severe, more naturalistic, less formally classical, Rococo. Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of ""fêtes galantes"", scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet. Watteau"
"and Dutch paintings of the 17th century. Fête galante Fête galante () (courtship party) is a term referring to a category of painting specially created by the French Academy in 1717 to describe Antoine Watteau's (1684–1721) variations on the theme of the fête champêtre which featured figures in ball dress or masquerade costumes disporting themselves amorously in parkland settings. When Watteau applied to join the French academy in 1717, there was no suitable category for his works, so the academy simply created one rather than reject his application. Watteau specifically created the ""fête galante"" painting style as a compromise between"
"worked on numerous private commissions that his rising reputation brought him. Finally, in January, 1717, the Academy called Watteau to task, and in August of that year he presented his painting, which had been painted quickly in the preceding eight months. Once submitted, the painting caused the Academy to invent a new classification for it, since the subject was so striking and new. This resulted in the fête galantes (elegant fêtes or outdoor entertainments), a genre subsequently practiced by imitators of Watteau, such as Jean-Baptiste Pater and Nicolas Lancret. While the creation of the new category acknowledged Watteau as the"
"of their attitude to Nature that such a position should be desirable."" Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called le Lorrain in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in Italy, and is one of the earliest important artists, apart from his contemporaries in Dutch Golden Age painting, to concentrate on landscape painting. His landscapes are usually turned into the more prestigious genre of history paintings by the addition of a few small figures, typically"
"Fête galante Fête galante () (courtship party) is a term referring to a category of painting specially created by the French Academy in 1717 to describe Antoine Watteau's (1684–1721) variations on the theme of the fête champêtre which featured figures in ball dress or masquerade costumes disporting themselves amorously in parkland settings. When Watteau applied to join the French academy in 1717, there was no suitable category for his works, so the academy simply created one rather than reject his application. Watteau specifically created the ""fête galante"" painting style as a compromise between two drives. On the one hand, most"
"Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called le Lorrain in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in Italy, and is one of the earliest important artists, apart from his contemporaries in Dutch Golden Age painting, to concentrate on landscape painting. His landscapes are usually turned into the more prestigious genre of history paintings by the addition of a few small figures, typically representing a scene from the Bible or classical mythology. By the end"
"way for Watteau in the development of his ""fêtes galantes"", which featured figures in ball dress or masquerade costumes disporting themselves amorously in parkland settings. In the 18th century, Watteau was commonly described as the 'French Teniers', thus showing that the comparison between the two artists contributed to Watteau's success. Other French painters of this time who were influenced by Teniers include Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Étienne Jeaurat and Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Some art historians see a direct link between Teniers' and Chardin's based on thematic as well as compositional similarities. David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II"
"and Thetis) and oriental (the Odalesques) subjects in the spirit of Romanticism. 18th-century French art 18th-century French art was dominated by the Baroque, Rocaille and neoclassical movements. In France, the death of Louis XIV in September 1715 led to a period of licentious freedom commonly called the Régence. The heir to Louis XIV, his great grandson Louis XV of France, was only 5 years old; for the next seven years France was ruled by the regent Philippe II of Orléans. Versailles was abandoned from 1715 to 1722. Painting turned toward ""fêtes galantes"", theater settings and the female nude. Painters from"
"The Gleaners The Gleaners (""Des glaneuses"") is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857. It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. The painting is famous for featuring in a sympathetic way what were then the lowest ranks of rural society; this was received poorly by the French upper classes. Millet's ""The Gleaners"" was preceded by a vertical painting of the image in 1854 and an etching in 1855. Millet unveiled ""The Gleaners"" at the Salon in 1857. It immediately drew negative criticism from the middle and upper classes, who"
"engaged in courting, card playing, or reading to each other. While based on the fêtes galantes of Watteau and Nicolas Lancret and on 17th-century Dutch genre painting, de Troy's compositions distinguish themselves through their detailed rendering of clothing and furnishings. The dress of the protagonists discloses their high social status. These ""tableaux de mode"" are also characterized by the meticulous handling of the paint and their luxurious and modish qualities. While Watteau's 'fête galantes' were filled with a sense of mystery and timelessness, de Troy's ""tableaux de mode"" were intended to provide a more realistic depiction of contemporary fashions, pastimes"
"l'enfant"", ""Saint-François de Sales"", and ""Sainte Jeanne de Chantal"". In Aix-en-Provence, the Musée Granet displays one of his paintings: ""La vierge à l’enfant, moine bénédictin, Sainte félicité et Perpétue"". Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) appointed him as official painter of French galleys. On May 1, 1685, he married Florie Régimonde, daughter of Jean Régimonde et de Jeanne Montaignon, in the Église Notre-Dame-des-Accoules in Marseille. He died on October 10, 1733 in Marseille. He was buried in the Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins in Marseille. Michel Serre Michel Serre (1658–1733) was a Catalan-born French painter. Michel Serre was born on January 10,"
"flowers or the wings of tropical butterflies. Charles Blanc wrote of Gratia, ""He is unrivaled in his genre; he knows how to give it vigor of color, harmony, warmth of tone, united with freshness and velvety hues ... "" An 1864 book on photography, then in its infancy, said that Gratia's works ""supply the finest possible model for the imitation of the student"" who was learning to color photographs using pastels. Publications include: Charles Louis Gratia Charles Louis Gratia (9 November 1815 – 11 August 1911) was a French painter best known as a pastel artist. He became well-known for"
"best known for his portraits such as that of Charles VII of France Fouquet also created illuminations, and is thought to be the inventor of the portrait miniature. There were a number of artists at this date who painted famed altarpieces, that are stylistically quite distinct from both the Italian and the Flemish. These include two enigmatic figures, Enguerrand Quarton to whom is ascribed the ""Pieta of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon"", and Jean Hey, otherwise known as ""the Master of Moulins"" after his most famous work, ""the Moulins Altarpiece"". In these works realism and close observation of the human figure, emotions and lighting"
"Monet, all the main avant-garde painters of the 1870s and 1880s came to Normandy to paint its landscapes and its changing lights, concentrating along the Seine valley and the Norman coast. Landscapes and scenes of daily life were also immortalised on canvas by artists such as William Turner, Gustave Courbet, the Honfleur born Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. While Monet's work adorns galleries and collections all over the world, a remarkable quantity of Impressionist works can be found in galleries throughout Normandy,"
"The 14th-century wooden ceiling of the cloister of Fréjus Cathedral has a remarkable series of paintings of biblical scenes, fantastic animals, and scenes from daily life, painted between 1350 and 1360. They include paintings of a fallen angel with the wings of a bat, a demon with the tail of a serpent, angels playing instruments, a tiger, an elephant, an ostrich, domestic and wild animals, a mermaid, a dragon, a centaur, a butcher, a knight, and a juggler. Nicolas Froment (1435–1486) was the most important painter of Provence during the Renaissance, best known for his triptych of the Burning Bush"
"Laval in Laval, Mayenne. Statues include Hebe, Ganymede, Erigone, Satan (inspired by Milton and exhibited at the Salon of 1827) and Jacques Delille at Clermont-Ferrand. He made many busts including the writers and artists Byron, Goethe, Grétry and Talma; the actresses Mlle George and Mlle Raucourt; the famous contemporaries Foy, Manuel, Laffitte and Louis XVIII of France (presented at the Salon of 1814); the historical figures Robert, Count of Burgundy, Turenne and Piero Strozzi, Marshal of France. Jean-Jacques Flatters Jean-Jacques Flatters, (6 November 1786 – 19 August 1845) was a French neo-classical sculptor. He was the father of Lieutenant-colonel Paul"
"Gustave Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger (25 April 1824 – October 1888) was a French figure painter known for his classical and Orientalist subjects. Boulanger was born at Paris in 1824. He was orphaned at age 14, and his uncle and guardian subsequently sent him to the studio of Pierre-Jules Jollivet and then to Delaroche in 1840. In 1849 took the Prix de Rome with his painting, ""Ulysses"", a work which combined a classical approach with Orientalist overtones. In 1845, he first visited Algeria and this gave him an interest in Orientalist themes, which was taken up later by his"
"as if enshrined in foliage, manifest a poetic and mysterious quality sometimes reminiscent of medieval paintings. This association was further emphasized by his use of unglazed colours in the manner of quattrocento frescoes and by a colour sense similar to that of Giotto."" André André Bauchant André Bauchant (April 24, 1873 – August 12, 1958) was a French 'naïve' painter. He is known mostly as a painter of flowers and of landscape compositions with figures which were often informed by mythology and classical history. He was born in Château-Renault, Indre-et-Loire. The son of a gardener, he originally entered his father's"
"Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (; 8 September 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ""Fables"", which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional languages. After a long period of royal suspicion, he was admitted to the French Academy and his reputation in France has never faded since. Evidence of this is found in the many pictures and statues of the writer, as well as later"
"illustrations on Japanese paper for a special edition of ""Le Maison sur le Nil"" by Pierre Louÿs, which was sold for a high price in 1909. Paul Gervais (painter) Paul-Jean-Louis Gervais (7 September 1859 – 11 March 1944) was a French painter who was fashionable around the end of the 19th century. He is known for his sensuous paintings of nude women. Paul-Jean-Louis Gervais was born in Toulouse, France on 7 September 1859. He was a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) and of Gabriel Ferrier (1847–1914). Paul Gervais was teaching at the Académie Julian in 1887, where one of his"
"Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint-Germain Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint-Germain (9 February 1754 – 11 November 1842) was a painter and art historian, inspired by the French enlightenment. He was born in Paris and studied under Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau. He left a very large number of historical and landscape pictures, miniatures and portraits. Among his portraits are those of Voltaire, Mademoiselle Clairon, Crébillon, and Stanislaus, King of Poland. He wrote accounts of the lives and works of Leonardo da Vinci and Nicolas Poussin; a ""Guide des Amateurs de Tableaux pour les Ecoles allemande, flamande et hollandaise,"" 1818; and other works relative to"
"few French poets of the 18th century have an enduring reputation; they include Jacques Delille (1738–1813), for ""les Jardins"" (""The Gardens""), in 1782; and Évariste de Parny (1753–1814) for ""Élégies"" in 1784, who both contributed to the birth of romanticism and to the poetry of nature and nostalgia. The poet of the 18th century best-known today is André Chénier (1762–1794), who created an expressive style in his famous ""la Jeune Tarentine"" (""The Young Tarentine"") and ""la Jeune Captive"" (""The Young Captive""), both published only in 1819, long after his death during the Terror of the French Revolution. Fabre d'Églantine was"
"and a number of French museums including three works in the Louvre. Pierre-Antoine Patel Pierre-Antoine Patel (November 22, 1648 – March 17, 1707), also known as Patel the Younger, was a French landscape painter. He was the son of Pierre Patel, also a renowned landscape painter, who, like many French painters of his generation, was influenced by the landscapes of Italy painted by Claude Lorrain. The younger Patel distinguished himself from his father by specializing in small, finely finished landscapes in gouache, an opaque watercolor. The majority of his works depict antique ruins, bathed in sunlight. His paintings hang in,"
"painting, in which he displayed much knowledge and judgment. He was married to the Polish artist, Anna Rajecka. It is not known if they had any children. The Rue Gault de Saint-Germain in Clermont-Ferrand is named after him. Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint-Germain Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint-Germain (9 February 1754 – 11 November 1842) was a painter and art historian, inspired by the French enlightenment. He was born in Paris and studied under Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau. He left a very large number of historical and landscape pictures, miniatures and portraits. Among his portraits are those of Voltaire, Mademoiselle Clairon, Crébillon, and"
"Paul-Emmanuel Péraire, Gabriel-Hippolyte Lebas, Albert Charpin, Félix Ziem, François-Louis Français, Émile van Marcke, and Alexandre Defaux. Millet extended the idea from landscape to figures — peasant figures, scenes of peasant life, and work in the fields. In ""The Gleaners"" (1857), for example, Millet portrays three peasant women working at the harvest. Gleaners are poor people who are permitted to gather the remains after the owners of the field complete the main harvest. The owners (portrayed as wealthy) and their laborers are seen in the back of the painting. Millet shifted the focus and the subject matter from the rich and"
"city views of Hendrik van Steenwijck I and Hans Vredeman de Vries . Gillis Mostaert Gillis Mostaert the Elder (27 or 28 November 1528 – 28 December 1598) was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century. He was a versatile artist who worked in various genres including landscape, genre and history painting. Gillis Mostaert was known in particular for his winter landscapes and his scenes with fires and nocturnal scenes and his works in this genre were among the most sought after pieces of his time. The artist operated a"
"a new generation of artists showed their works; François Gérard; Anne-Louis Girodet, a pupil of David, famous for his romantic paintings, particularly a 1797 painting of the prominent actress and courtesan Mademoiselle Lange as Venus; Carle Vernet, the son and father of famous painters; The portrait painter Jean-Baptiste Isabey, who painted all the rulers of France from Marie-Antoinette through Napoleon III; the genre painter Louis-Léopold Boilly; Antoine-Jean Gros, a young history and landscape painter, who soon achieved fame and a government position in 1796 with a heroic portrait of Napoleon at the battle of Arcole; the romantic landscapes of Hubert"
"moved to Uccle, where they had built a large mansion. Fernand Stiévenart Fernand Joseph Jules Stiévenart (21 May 1862 in Douai – 22 January 1922 in Uccle) was a French landscape painter; associated with the artists' colony at Wissant. After completing his primary education in Douai, he began his artistic studies with a local painter, François-Constant Petit (1819-?). From 1878 to 1880, he studied at the École des Beaux-arts with Gustave Boulanger and others; winning several awards. In 1888, he exhibited several landscapes at the ""Salon des Artistes Français"", but it was not until 1893 that he joined the Société"