Jean-Antoine Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau, (1684-1721). French rococo painter. He settled in Paris in 1702 and developed a style strongly influenced by Rubens and by Venetian painting. His most characteristic pictures represent courtiers and their ladies in a pastoral landscape. Watteau’s most famous picture is the atmospheric and ethereal Embarkation for the Island of Cythera (1717). His handling of colour has led critics to describe him as a forerunner of the impressionists.
