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Lancret completed numerous paintings, a significant proportion of which (over eighty) were engraved.
(During his lifetime (1690-1743), and throughout the great...)
During his lifetime (1690-1743), and throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century, Nicolas Lancret was one of the most celebrated artists in France. After nearly two centuries of having been overshadowed by the work of certain contemporaries (notably Watteau), the singular appeal and sophisticated charm of Lancret's genre paintings are once more widely recognized and appreciated. This is the first book in English about Lancret, a key force in the development of the visual arts in eighteenth-century France. As one of the leading artists of his time, Lancret counted among his patrons the crowned heads of Europe, along with major connoisseurs among the aristocracy and in the financial community. He was also the favorite genre artist of Louis XV, who commissioned paintings from him for various royal residences--especially Versailles and Fontainebleau. The reasons for Lancret's popularity and success are apparent in the paintings and drawings splendidly reproduced in this book. His pictures tell lively and intelligible stories, his themes are inventive and entertaining, and his color combinations are bright and striking. His images made the transition from decorative painting to engraving with ease, and then proceeded to capture the popular imagination in much the same way as amusing gossip. As he matured, Lancret developed his talent for narrative--for a visual form of storytelling that is subtle and sophisticated, yet also ingenuous and folkloric. This tradition in European art was strong and continuous, as reflected in the work of its most famous adherents, Hogarth and Greuze. No eighteenth-century painter was more firmly centered and active in that tradition than Nicolas Lancret.
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Lancret completed numerous paintings, a significant proportion of which (over eighty) were engraved.
Lancret, who remained a pupil of Gillot from 1712–1713, was heavily influenced by the older painter, whose typical slender figures can be found in many of his pupil"s younger works. Two pictures painted by Lancret and exhibited on the Place Dauphine had a great success, which laid the foundation of his fortune, and, it is said, estranged Watteau, who had been complimented as their author In 1718 he was received as an Academician, from thereon becoming a very respected artist, especially amongst the admirers of Watteau.
He completed works to decorate the Palace of Versailles, while his style was later to prove popular with Frederick the Great.
Lancret"s populairty was reflected by the decision to make him a councillor at the Academie in 1735. Although he completed several portraits and historical pieces his favourite subjects were balls, fairs, village weddings and so forth.
In this respect he was typical of Rococo artists. Some have claimed Lancret"s work is significantly inferior to that of Watteau.
In drawing and in painting his touch is often considered intelligent but dry.
Art historian Michael Levey remarked that Lancret was "no poet but a charming essayist". Lancret"s characteristics are due possibly to the fact that he had been for some time in training under an engraver. lieutenant is generally considered that the artist produced his best work towards the latter end of his life, displaying, in the minds of several art historians, an increasing ability to create a sense of harmony between art and nature, as in Montreir de lanterne magique, and a willingness to lend his, now bulkier, figures a firmer place in his compositions.
These changes displayed the influence of later Watteaus like L"Enseigne de Gersaint.
Lancret"s last painting, Family in a Garden, The National, is considered by Levey to be his "masterpiece". The scene, which depicts a family taking coffee, has an intimacy and hint of humour that are considered captivating.
The work"s flowing lines, Rococoesque harmony of pastel colours, painterly style and charming subject matter (of a wide eyed young girl, surrounded by her happy family and natural, yet un-threatening setting, trying her first taste of coffee) are seen to display a delicate sense of vitality and freshness that anticipate the works of both Thomas Gainsborough and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The British Museum possesses an admirable series of studies by Lancret in red chalk, and the National, London, shows four paintings—the "Four Ages of Manitoba" (engraved by Desplaces and l"Armessin), cited by d"Argenville amongst the principal works of Lancret.
(During his lifetime (1690-1743), and throughout the great...)