The Country Dance
Maker
Jean-Antoine Watteau
(French, 1684 - 1721)
Additional Title(s)
- La Danse Paysanne
Collections
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Dateca. 1711
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensions17 x 12 3/4 in. (43.2 x 32.4 cm.)
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, gift of Mildred Browning Green and Honorable Lucius Peyton Green
Label TextWatteau invented the fête galante, a type of painting depicting elegant ladies and gentlemen socializing in pastoral settings. In this example, a couple dances to the sound of a hurdy-gurdy in a forest clearing. Dancing, a metaphor of love and courtship, plays a central role in many of Watteau’s fêtes galantes. A striking feature of the painting is the roundel containing the figures, which is set into a rectangular wood panel. The area surrounding the roundel was added later, probably between 1715 and 1731.Status
On viewObject number78.20.19
Jean-Antoine Houdon
1777
Object number: 27.92
Auguste Louis Jean Baptiste Riviere
ca. 1793 -1794
Object number: 78.20.17
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
ca. 1785
Object number: 78.20.5