1720s Figurative Paintings

This early 18th-century Flemish oil painting depicts Christ on the cross with a sorrowful Mary Magdalene and Jerusalem beyond. Head bloodied by a crown of thorns, arms taut and wrac...

Carle Vanloo (Nice 1705 – Paris 1765) Perseus and Andromeda Oil on canvas. H. 081; W. 065. Alongside François Boucher (1703-1770) and Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), Carle Vanlo...

This exquisite and exceedingly rare early 18th-century Russian Staurotek icon depicts The Crucifixion of Christ with an assemblage of saints, together with a 19th-century copper-cast...

This early 18th-century oil painting attributed to Austrian artist, Franz de Paula Ferg (1689-1740), depicts the Commedia dell’Arte performing in a busy Italian village square. Ferg ...

Wonderful Italian painting from the first half of the 18th century. Oil on canvas artwork depicting a fascinating biblical story, the beheading of the Babylonian leader Holofernes by...

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...

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...

Splendid Flemish painting from the first half of the 18th century. Oil on canvas artwork depicting a magnificent game of cherubs that reveals itself, for some details, as a refined a...