French Rococo Painting

Taking the timeline of Baroque to Neoclassical art over to France during the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774), a style developed called Rococo. The name derives from the French 'Rocaille' to describe rock-like motifs which extends into scroll-like and shell-like motifs. The style is described as a lighter, less religion based Baroque. Louis XV was the grandson of his predecessor Louis XIV. Louis XIV stipulated in his will that his grandson should become king but shall not rule until he came of age. Before then, his nephew, Philippe of Orleans, would be the president of a Regency Council that would rule by majority. By 1723 the Regency ended and the 13 year old Louis XV became king.

Louis XIV employed academicians as his court painters, such as Poussin, of whom I wrote about here. During Louis XV's reign however, the influence of the low countries meant that French painting changed direction. Although Louis XV patronised this new style, the academicians still held their ground. The academicians, known as the 'Poussinists' were rivals of the Rubenists - those of whom followed (or painted with influence from ) the 17th century Flemish painter.

Some artists that could be described as 'Rubenists' that introduced the Rococo style:

Watteau, Embarkation for the Island of Cythera, 1717.
The island of Cythera was known as the island of Venus. The painting is dream-like, with a particularly Venetian palette. The wistfulness of the figures and the less precise brushwork has clearly been lifted from Rubens' Garden of Love (pictured below). The dimensions of this picture are 1.3m x 1.9m which is typically quite big for paintings that fell outside of the history painting genre. It is without a religious or moral meaning but is a 'fete galante' - which was basically a French party during the regency. Because of the difficulty in attributing it to a genre, the 'fete galante' became a genre of its own.

Pierrot, 1718-20.

During the reign of Louis XIV, Watteau was employed by the painter Claude Gillot whose paintings were a reaction against academic art. Here he was able to see a lot of Rubens' work but more importantly with reference to this painting he became well acquainted with characters from the 'Commedia dell'arte'. The 'comedy of craft' was a set genre of theatre which was expelled from France at the beginning of the 18th century and of which Pierrot was a character. My lecturer always says that we are 'children of the romantic era' and tend to assume paintings like this show sadness and loneliness, but he believes that may not be the case - maybe just a painting of one of his favourite characters.

Fetes Venitiennes, 1718-19.

This painting depicts Watteau's friend, and art dealer, Vleughels. He is the one in the turban. The palette is of course Venetian once more. The people in the painting are happy, flirting and listening to music. There is a sense of sensuality and harmony typical of the Rococo. Watteau has also painted a life-like sculpture to the right. The brushwork is again loose and sketchy like Rubens.

L'enseigne de Gersaint, 1720.

This is a painting of the art dealer Gersaint's shop. As above, the interaction between the figures is plentiful and flirtatious. This is quite symbolic as a change in artistic tendency - the figures are packing away austere, baroque art into boxes.

Boucher, the Rising and Setting of the Sun, 1752-3.

This one shows a slight return to moral painting. The characters are perhaps representative of Louis XV and Madame Pompadour. Louis XV as apollo is perhaps an allusion to his relation with the 'sun king' (Louis XIV). It is a baroque-ish subject mattere with baroque-ish harsh movement. Saying that, it's baroque qualities have been rococo-fied in its beauty, easy and sense of calm.

Mile O'Murphy, 1752.

My lecturer talks a lot about being able to identify different art styles through 'tits & bums' - Rococo bums are not as sculpterly as renaissance or baroque bums but not as dimplely (lol) or flat as avant-garde bums. Her foot laying of a fluffy pillow is probably meant to echo her fluffy rococo bum and is typically playful as was rococo art. With the unmistakable pinkish-orangey tones.

Frangonard, The Swing, 1767.

Hogarth's secret of beauty was that it 'leads the eye a wanton kind of chase' - i would say this applies here. She has a slipper flying off, there's a curling tree branch over her head and of course she is on a swing - a sense of letting go and being at ease. 

Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe, 1767.

Perhpas at first this doesn't look as calm and at ease as the others, but the little putti to the right and the way in which the sacrifice could be mistaken for something other than killing yourself are tell-tale signs of rococo. 

Chardin, the Young Schoolmistress, 1735-40.

This looks like Dutch genre scenes but the refined and Venetian brushtroke gives it the quality of the French rococo. Although Chardin was influenced by the Dutch and Venetian like the other rococo painters, his work is characterised by the sense of Bourgeoisie morality that he perhaps picked up from the Netherlands too. It wasn't like the baroque whereby the sense of morality was geared towards the upper class of whom concerned themselves with dangerous, unorthodox pit-falls. It was about life, and the need to be learned for example. In rococo style though, the schoolmistress is neither harsh nor demanding - she is patient and kind. 

The House of Cards, 1735-6.

This is another typical morality piece. The young boy is acting like an adult in his adult clothes, but as a house of cards may fall easily, his demeanor may deteriorate too - a lesson in acting prudent.

The Attributes of the Arts, 1766.

This obviously has a lot of still-life influence from the Dutch.  Chardin wanted to be taken seriously and this was actually accepted into the academy. It shows a sculpture by his friend, Pigatte (of Mercury), books and the Order of St. Michael award that was awarded to artists. 

Le Grand Siecle

Le Grand Siecle 'the Great Century' was a term coined by the French Enlightenment writer Voltaire, with reference to the reign of Louis XIV. More specifically though, it can be attributed to the arts as a means to describe a certain prestige that they held in the following centuries.

Louis XIV ( reign: 1643-1715) is most famous for his consolidation of absolute monarnichal rule, the creation of a centralised state authority, and the dismantlement of the Feudal system that remained stubborn in parts of France (while appeasing the aristocrats by allowing their residence in his magnificent Palace of Versailles). Futhermore, he expanded French territory northeastwards into the Netherlands at the cost of their allies.

During the Great Century France not only produced their own talent but attracted a lot from elsewhere, too. In this instance, the focus will be on Nicholas Poussin. Nicholas Poussin was French but actually spent a lot of time in Rome. Nonetheless, he is held in high esteem as an artist who preserved classicism in the face of realism. The likes of Jacques-Louis David and Cezanne are known to have admired him for this. To confuse things (at least it really confuses me) he is considered a baroque painter. He is not a realist like the baroque painter Caravaggio, but a classicist. From this we can deduce that baroque art can come in either mode, classical or realist/naturalistic. I try to avoid jumping to conclusions most of the time but fail so i'll do it anyway: Poussin began the loooong journey of realism vs classicism that came to a head in the 19th century with Manet, Toulouse-Lutrec, Seurat, Courbet etc VS. Ingres, Laurens, Picou etc.

The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, 1628-9.

During his stay in Rome, this was his sole papal commission (Urban VIII). Like realist baroque, the composition is dramatic. There are numerous figures crammed together much like Mannerist painting but without the ugly long bodies. HOWEVER, for want of a better phrase there is no "ugly realistic suffering", Poussin has painted stoicism in the saints face. 

The Death of Germanicus, 1927.

Again here the way that the figures are placed evokes a sense of tension and drama. You can imagine the death of someone in public provoking a wave of onlookers to hunch up in a big crowd. The image has been modeled on Roman sarcophagi and thusly seem 'shallow' in their spacial arrangement. Although crowded, you get the sense of movement within the crowd, noone looks stationary. Movement of course, being another benchmark in baroque art.

A Dance to the Music of Time, 1634-36.

I prefer his allegorical work to his religious work not only because the iconography (in my opinion) is more interesting but also because it's so pretty. The four figures dancing are supposedly the four seasons, although i'll admit the only easily idenfiable figure is autumn with the wreath of leaves around her head. To identify them more easily you have to take into account the role of father time and apollo in this allegory (former playing the instrument, with wings and latter in the chariot). Father time, especially when portrayed with or near an hourglass (held by the putti), acts as a memento mori. Now consider that, and the fact that we see apollo either at dawn or dusk. We can only assume the ambiguity of whether the sun is rising or setting is deliberate and refers to the ongoing cycle of the sun and by extension life itself, too. The two together would suggest that the painting is an allegory of death and rebirth. From this we can infer that if apollo represents the birth and death of a day and a life, then the figures may represent the stages of a year and the stages of life. Autumn may represent being born as inherently poor (the clothes are visibly inelegant); the figure to the right with head dress that may represent a working woman and thus the stage in life where you must endure labour to survive (winter); the third figure, spring, bears a crown and therefore could represent the wealth that comes from labour to her left; lastly, summer, with a wreath of flowers in her hair to represent the pleasures of the wealth. Then..... you die! thanks to father time. 

(Oh and the statue to the left has an old face and young face (one covered in facial hair, the other not))

Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well, 1648.

The patron that asked for this painting specifically asked for beautiful women. It is believed that the jugs are used to represent the perfect form of the woman, as per the request of the patron. This however is clearly very classical with only some hint of baroque in it (moving water from jugs, woman walking with jug on her head and one in her hand). Artists obviously get a kick out of making art history very confusing to study.

Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake, 1648.

The use of landscape in this one creates a sense of baroque drama that Poussin has been lacking in. You can see four sets of figures: the dead bloke killed by a snake, the man running away from it, the woman alarmed by the other man running and lastly the fisherman who also seem to be panicked via the woman in distress.

The Ecstacy of St. Paul, 1650.

Baroque influence has clearly been strong in this instance due to its theatricality and lots of movement with the smoke and arms - yet it still lacks the dramatic delivery of Italian baroque.