#29 ROCOCO AND ENGLISH ART
ROCOCO AND ENGLISH ART
Portrait of Marie Antoinette, by Jean-Baptiste Gautier Dagoty (1775), oil on canvas — Wikimedia Commons
Not too many teenagers today want to get married at the age of fifteen, but Marie Antoinette, the beautiful daughter of Austrian nobles, had no choice. In 1770 her parents married her off to the crown prince of France. France was the social center of Europe, and Marie Antoinette, who became queen while she was still a teenager, made a point of enjoying every moment she could.
She lived in grand opulence at Versailles, an enormous palace built during the Baroque era (as you recall from the previous lesson), where she wore extravagant clothes and spent much of her time partying and gambling. Baroque art became even more elaborate, more decorative and more ornate during the Rococo period (the early 1700s), reflecting the royal love of luxury
Unfortunately for Marie Antoinette, while she and her court were living the high life, many French people were hungry and poor. They took out their fury on the young queen during the French Revolution, and she was beheaded at the age of thirty-eight.
OBJECTIVES
Identify characteristics of Rococo architecture.
Identify characteristics of Rococo painting.
Describe English gardens and picturesque ideals.
Discuss the works of Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth.
VOCABULARY
ROCOCO STYLE
In the early 1700s, the Rococo style of art and architecture grew out of the Baroque era. It is characterized by ornate decoration and a light, delicate style. The word comes from the French word for pebble and referred to the small shells and stones used to decorate grotto interiors. The Rococo period occurred during the reign of King Louis XV of France, which lasted from 1715 to 1774. The style began with the introduction of arabesques and curves in architecture.
Sanssouci, a palace at Potsdam completed in 1747 by G.W. von Knobelsdorff is an excellent example of Rococo architecture. Notice the iridescent pastel colors.
The interiors of buildings were also adorned in a Rococo style. Here we see the oval-shaped marble where the king entertained.
The Rococo style also extended to paintings. Rather than the weighty subject matter of the past, such as myths and religious narrative, the Rococo painters were more interested in light-hearted, even flirtatious, subjects.
Love in the French Theatre by Watteau — Wikimedia
Notice in the painting Love in the French Theatre by Watteau that the colors are less bold, more pastel than the colors of the Baroque painters. The subject matter is love and the setting is some sort of wooded glade.
Another outstanding Rococo painter was François Boucher, painter of plump, pink nudes in bedrooms, among other subjects. Read the article about Boucher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.
Notes
Jean Honoré Fragonard was a painter of secret rendezvous in wooded areas. Study his painting, The Swing. Originally painted for a courtier, or an attendant in a royal court, the technically brilliant, The Swing was quite scandalous even as it embraced the upcoming French Revolution. What features of Rococo do you notice?
Other European countries soon adopted the Rococo style.
This interior of a Basilica in Bavaria shows the ornate decorative flourishes the Rococo designers were known for. There is a sense of light and abundant life in this enormous room and plenty for the eye to look at. Notice the use of gold and silver to create a feeling of opulence.
Not all painters of the 18th century were men. Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun was renowned for her portraits of the nobility.
Take a look at her portrait of Marie Antoinette. In 1789 the French Revolution put an end to the frivolities of Rococo. A new way of thinking emerged, and with it, a new art.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH ART PICTURESQUE
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough lived from 1727 to 1788. Gainsborough lived in Bath, a coastal resort town, for many years where he became well known for his portraits and landscapes. Influenced by both Jean Antoine Watteau and Sir Anthony van Dyck, his portraits gained him fame and fortune. He eventually left Bath for London where he painted portraits of King George III and other royalty.
Gainsborough was a also great painter of landscapes and sometimes he combined both landscape and portrait as you can see in the portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews.
Of his more than 500 paintings, more than 200 are portraits.
The Blue Boy is one of his most famous paintings. Notice the look of nobility and grace in the boy’s stance and facial expression. Gainsborough used thinly applied colors. He used a lot of greens and blues.
Gainsborough's landscapes are characterized by soft, diluted light.
In this river landscape, notice how the land itself is untamed. Perhaps he tired of being around royalty and rich merchants because when it came to landscapes he preferred simple, natural, even rough-hewn subjects and was a leader in the British Landscape movement.
Take a virtual visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Study Gainsborough's Wooded Upland Landscape and be sure to read the accompanying text.
William Hogarth
While Gainsborough painted portraits glamorizing the nobility, William Hogarth's pictures were satirical illustrations of their lives. Hogarth was a painter, illustrator and engraver. Study the engraving Satire on False Perspective by William Hogarth, 1753.
"Whoever makes a Design without the knowledge of Perspective will be liable to such absurdities as are shewn in this Frontispiece." — Hogarth
Notes
What "absurdities" can you spot in the picture? Record them in your notes.
By 1735 Hogarth had gained "a reputation as a painter of English manners and customs." Hogarth's series of six paintings entitled Marriage à-la-Mode (Modern Marriage) is considered among his finest work for the following qualities:
satire of marriage for money
details of upper-class life
mastery of complex scenes
Marriage A-la-Mode shows Lord Squanderfield as unhealthy while the series evokes French art and Rococo design.
Long before downloading music and pirating movies were designated criminal offenses, popular etchings were stolen from artists and reproduced to sell. William Hogarth was so incensed by this practice that he was instrumental in the passage of a copyright law — often called "Hogarth's Act" — in 1735.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard's Inspiration 1769 — Wikimedia
LET'S REVIEW!
In this lesson, you have covered the following concepts:
The eighteenth-century in France and England was a time of great changes
The middle class grew richer and stronger
The printing press meant that many more people were literate
While the aristocracy promoted an opulent art style in France, the English were exploring the idea of liberty in art, landscape and society
Painters such as Watteau and Fragonard in France emphasized love and sex. In England, painters such as Gainsborough and Hogarth painted portraits that both romanticized and satirized the aristocracy.
Complete the following quiz.