(1684?C1721). French painter of Flemish descent, b. Valenciennes. Until 1704 poverty forced him to work in the shops of mediocre artists, where he produced genre and devotional subjects. In 1704?C8 he studied in the studio of Claude Gillot, an adept painter of scenes of theatrical life, which later became the subject of some of Watteau's finest paintings, such as Love in the Italian Theatre and Love in the French Theatre (both: Berlin). In 1708?C9 Watteau worked with the decorator Claude Audran. Watteau attracted the attention of eminent patrons in his last years, including the comte de Caylus, his biographer, and in 1717 he was made a full member of the Acad??mie royale. The Embarkation for Cythera (1717; Louvre) is characteristic of his art; it is a delicate, courtly fantasy, represented in warm and shimmering pastel tones that place him among the great colorists of all time. A lyric, Giorgionesque quality pervades his airy, gay, and sensuous scenes, which have a poignancy that none of his followers attained. Out of the most fleeting aspects of life he created an enduring and individual art. His exquisite paintings influenced fashion and garden design in the 18th cent. Other outstanding works include Gilles (Louvre), Perspective (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston), Mezzetin (Metropolitan Mus.), and Gersaint's Shop Sign (1719; Berlin).   Related Paintings of WATTEAU, Antoine :. | An Embarrassing Proposal | Die Serenate | The French Comedy | The Fortune Tellers | Portrait of a Gentleman1 |
Related Artists:
The Freake Limner
American Colonial Era Painter, active 1670-ca.1680
CARDUCHO, Vicente
(b. 1576, Florence, d. 1638, Madrid Painter and theorist, brother of Bartolom Carducho. He became a prolific painter for both the church and the court in Castile, adapting a late 16th-century Italianate style, introduced into Spain in the 1580s, to Spanish themes and settings. After his death this style was superseded in monastic programmes by Zurbarn's pietistic simplicity and in altarpieces and devotional painting by the elegant compositions of van Dyck and Rubens, while Velezquez was unrivalled as a portrait painter. Of more enduring influence than Vicente's paintings, however, was his Dielogos de la pintura (Madrid, 1633), an erudite defence of painting as a noble pursuit and of the artist as a learned humanist. While painters in Spain struggled until the 18th century to attain freedom from artisanship, the Dielogos featured significantly in 17th-century efforts to achieve that goal,
Amy Philip
1788-1865,is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Jessica Arnold in the BBC school drama, Grange Hill, which she acted between 1994 and 1998. In Grange Hill, Amy character was from a middle-class family and was sent to Grange Hill from an exclusive girls school when her father business fell on hard times. She quickly adapted to life at Grange Hill and won a firm following among male fans. In 1996, viewers saw the previously feisty Jessica become bedridden with chronic fatigue syndrome (or M.E. as the condition was then popularly known). Simcock appeared in just the first four episodes of the 1996 series, with Jessica sent to the USA to recuperate. Despite returning to Grange Hill as an integral part of the 1997 series, where Jessica would cause a stir as editor of the school magazine, Simcock appeared in just two episodes of the 1998 series, the explanation being that Jessica had left Grange Hill in favour of sixth form college. In September 1997, Simcock appeared in the CITV comedy drama Knight School as Lady Elizabeth de Gossard, having now changed her professional name to Amy Phillips. Post-Grange Hill, Phillips has continued to make regular occasional appearances in various TV shows, the most notable being as Beth Partridge in the BBC series Rescue Me. She has also appeared in the Hollywood movie The Freediver.