(1684 - 1721)
(Jean) Antoine Watteau was born in Valenciennes, northern France. He relocated to Paris in about 1702, where he became assistant to Claude Gillot. By this time he may already have contracted the tuberculosis, which would considerably impact on his life. By 1707/8 he had entered the studio of painter Claude Audran, Keeper of the Luxembourg Palace, who gave him access to Rubens’ ‘Life of Marie de Medici’. In Paris he studied the Venetian masters, particularly Veronese. Watteau was made an associate of the Academy and became the first member described as a painter of ‘fêtes galantes’. From 1719-20 he was in London, consulting physician Richard Mead on his illness. His final work was a shop sign titled ‘Enseigne de Gersaint’ (1720-21; Berlin).
