Art Institute of Chicago

Fête champêtre (Pastoral Gathering)

Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721)LinkedCulture matchlcp-319ad702b014

Date: 1718–21
Medium: Oil on panel
Culture: France
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 107938

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Jean-Antoine Watteau developed the genre of painting known as fête champêtre , featuring courting figures relaxing in a landscape. The elegant figures in Pastoral Gathering are grouped to suggest the three phases of love: childhood innocence (left), romantic enchantment and courtship (center), and amorous attainment (right). The transitory nature of romance is underscored by the changing autumn leaves and waning afternoon light. This painting may have been begun by Watteau toward the end of his career and finished by Jean-Baptiste Pater, who studied under Watteau and completed some of his unfinished projects.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Max and Leola Epstein Collection
Provenance: Probably Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun, Paris, by 1773; probably his sale, Pierre Rémy, Paris, December 20, 22 and 23, 1773, no. 177, as Watteau, “Vingt-six figures de pouces de proportions, occupées à chanter, à jouer & à se promener dans différens endroits d’un Parc très-orné d’arbres. La belle couleur rend ce Tableau un des plus capitaux qui soit connu de ce Maître” (Twenty-six figures, each five pouces in size, are engaged in singing, playing, and promenading in various areas of a park highly ornamented with trees. The beautiful coloring of the painting makes it one of the finest known by this master) [supported by Gabriel de Saint Aubin’s sketch in the margin of his sale catalogue; see Feinberg in Wise and Warner 1996, fig. 3]; probably Daniel Saint, Paris, by 1845; sold Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, May 4, 1846, no. 57, as Watteau, for Fr 4900, probably to Richard Seymour Conway, fourth marquess of Hertford [Goncourt 1875]. Richard Seymour Conway, fourth marquess of Hertford (d.1870), Paris [Waagen1857, pp. 79, 84]; by descent to Sir Richard Wallace, Bt. (d.1890); at his death to his widow, Lady Wallace (d. 1897); at her death to Sir John E. A. Murray Scott, Bt. (died1912); sold at Christie’s, London, June 27, 1913, no. 134 (ill.), as Pater, to Agnew, London, for 2415 gns. [annotated sales catalogue, Christie’s]; sold, as Pater, to Walter S. M. Burns, Esq. (d. 1930), North Myms Park, Hatfield, 1919 [letter of April 7, 1981 from William Joll, Agnew’s, in curatorial file]; sold Christie’s, London, June 20, 1930, no. 106 (ill.), as Lancret, to Frank T. Sabin, London, for 3045 gns. [annotated catalogue in Ryerson Library, Art Institute]; sold to Max and Leola Epstein, Chicago, 1934 [Art Institute registrar’s receipt]; given to the Art Institute, 1954.