# Antoine Watteau

French, 1684–1721; born in Valenciennes; died in Nogent-sur-Marne

Watteau came to Paris from Valenciennes, worked with the theatre painter Claude Gillot and the decorator Claude Audran, and studied Rubens’s Medici cycle at the Luxembourg Palace. In 1717 the Academy received him with a new category, the fête galante, for his Pilgrimage to Cythera: elegant figures in parkland, often in theatre costume, touched with melancholy. His chalk drawings, frequently in red, black and white, are among the finest of the century. He died of tuberculosis at thirty-six.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

4 works in the collection.

- [Mezzetin](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/mezzetin-met-437926), Antoine Watteau, ca. 1718–20. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- [The Italian Comedians](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-italian-comedians-nga-32687), Antoine Watteau, probably 1720. Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington.
- [The Old Savoyard](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-old-savoyard-aic-20432), Antoine Watteau, c. 1715. Courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.
- [Seated Woman](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/seated-woman-met-459192), Antoine Watteau, 1716–17. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.