Antoine Watteau

Fêtes galantes are elegant outdoor scenes of courtship, music, and leisure, often with theatrical costumes. Watteau helped define the category in early 18th-century French Rococo painting.

Watteau submitted Pilgrimage to Cythera as his reception piece to the French Royal Academy in 1717. The painting is often read as a scene of lovers departing from or traveling toward the island associated with Venus.

Watteau painted figures inspired by the commedia dell'arte and French theater, including characters such as Pierrot. His theatrical figures often look playful at first but carry melancholy or ambiguity.

No. Watteau died in 1721, only a few years after becoming a full member of the Academy. His short career still had a major effect on Rococo painting.