1720s Figurative Paintings

Magnificent Italian painting from the first half of the 18th century. This oil on canvas artwork depicts the biblical episode of Moses driving the shepherds from the well of Midian. ...

US buyers pay no import tariffs on this item. This exquisite and exceedingly rare early 18th-century Russian Staurotek icon depicts The Crucifixion of Christ with an assemblage of s...

This small landscape shows a hunting scene: two riders are chasing a stag with their dogs at the edge of a forest. Signed by Peter von Bemmel, it is typical of the production of this...

Attributed to MILLOT, Henri. Portrait of a Lady. Oil on canvas. Unsigned, inscribed Millot on the reverse. 18th century. 85 x 69 cm. Framed. 85 x 69 cm. Portrait of a young woman in ...

As Florence Ingersoll-Smouse wrote in 1921 in her book devoted to Jean-Baptiste Pater, "a painter of the Fête galante, Pater is interesting both by his intimacy with Watteau, to whom many of his works are still attributed, and by his own value as an artist.” This sanguine, full of life and spontaneity, is typical of the preparatory studies made by the painter to be used later in the composition of his paintings. 1. Jean-Baptiste Pater, pupil and disciple of Antoine Watteau Antoine Pater, Jean-Baptiste's father, belonged to the petty bourgeoisie of Valenciennes where he worked as a merchant-sculptor. His brother Jacques was a local painter who was probably involved in his nephew's training. Born on December 29, 1695, Jean-Baptiste Pater was first trained with Jean-Baptiste Guider, a local painter whose death in 1711 was probably the reason for Jean-Baptiste’s departure alongside Watteau, who was visiting Valenciennes. Watteau's difficult character led to their separation in 1713. Back in Valenciennes, Jean-Baptiste Pater encountered difficulties with the powerful Corporation of Saint-Luke (to which he refused to belong) which forced him to return to Paris in 1718. He reconciled with Watteau shortly before his death (on July 18th 1721), inherited the commissions that Watteau had been unable to fulfil and completed some of his paintings. Pater was accepted by the Académie Royale in 1725 but did not produce his reception painting The soldier’s revels until three years later. Throughout his brief career (he died at the age of forty on July 25th 1736), he mainly had a clientele of amateurs and received only one royal commission, shortly before his death. 2. Description of the drawing and related artworks Pater had adopted his master Watteau's method of composition. His study drawings were carefully glued in a notebook and were used to animate his compositions. His paintings sometimes suffer from a somewhat artificial composition, since the figures seem to be pasted one next to the other. This point has also been made about Watteau’s. The theme of military scenes (which was at the time included in the genre of Fêtes galantes!) was one of Pater’s favourite subjects. Together with the Bathing Women...

Painting, oil on canvas, dating from around the 1730s, measuring 115 x 222 cm unframed and 130 x 240 cm with a period frame, depicting the Pentecost in the Emilian style, and in part...