Images(2)

The Country Dance

Maker Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684 - 1721)

Additional Title(s)

La Danse Paysanne

Collections

European Painting Highlights

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

Status

On view

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.

Object number78.20.19