Rococo to Neoclassicism the 18th Century in Europe America Art History

The Rococo manner of decorative art, architecture, interior pattern, sculpture, and painting originated in early 18th century Paris. This exuberant and elegant move spread throughout France and other European countries like Austria and Frg. The Rococo fashion is luxurious, extravagant, and light-hearted.

Table of Contents

• i A Brief Introduction to the Rococo Way
  • 1.1 Origins of the Term Rococo
• 2 The History of the Rococo Fashion
  • ii.ane French Rococo
  • 2.2 Italian Rococo
  • 2.iii Southern High german Rococo
  • 2.4 British Rococo
• 3 The Art and Pattern of the Rococo Menstruation
  • 3.1 Rococo Interior Design
  • 3.two Rococo Furniture
  • iii.3 Rococo Architecture: Baroque vs. Rococo
  • 3.iv Rococo Painting
  • 3.5 Rococo Sculpture
  • 3.6 Rococo Porcelain
  • three.7 Rococo Music
  • three.8 Rococo Fashion
• 4 The Gradual Decline of the Rococo Style
• 5 Famous Rococo Artists
  • 5.1 Francois Boucher (1703-1770)
  • 5.ii Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)
  • 5.3 Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)
  • 5.4 Elisabeth Louise Vigee le Brun (1755-1842)
  • 5.5 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)
  • 5.6 Giovani Antonio Canal (1697-1768)
  • 5.7 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

A Brief Introduction to the Rococo Manner

In terms of a Rococo definition, if there was ever an aristocratic French fine art style, Rococo is it. Rococo designs were incredibly theatrical and ornamental, designed to impress and communicate wealth. Characterized by lightness, curving forms, asymmetrical values, nature-inspired motifs, and playful themes, the Rococo style is truly unique.

The style of the Rococo period has a strong sense of whimsy. Compared to the Baroque manner that preceded it, the Rococo style had a much lighter color palette. Lightness and elegance permeate Rococo design with pastel colors, a lot of gold, and ivory white. Many Rococo interior designers used mirrors to create a sense of lightness and spaciousness.

Curving forms were a prominent feature of Rococo design, with swirling scrolls and curvy piece of furniture. Counter-curves and undulations mirrored natural forms, like plants and seashells. Curvacious designs incorporated serpentine lines or sinuous lines that curved in different directions, much like plant vines.

I of the distinguishing elements of the Rococo period is the lack of precise rest in ornamental features. The asymmetry is both within the ornament and within a piece of article of furniture or architecture every bit a whole. Article of furniture and architectural designs frequently incorporated asymmetrical C-shaped volutes. Asymmetrical values besides included the representation of seashells and other nature-inspired shapes. Pieces of Rococo furniture, like cabinets and couches, often had unbalanced decorative elements. Despite the lack of balance in the decoration, the overall sense of balance remains.

A particularly prominent decorative motif used throughout Rococo painting, sculpture, and interior pattern is nature-inspired. Many of the curved shapes were based on organic shapes like waves, seashells, and other body of water-themed motifs. Leaf motifs were as well common, with crimper vine leaves like stylized acanthus fronds. Although organic in inspiration, these shapes were often exaggerated and gilded.

Playful and lighthearted themes are prominent features of Rococo painting and sculpture. Often, Rococo paintings were based around themes of beloved, playfulness, and nature. Classical myths were also popular themes amidst Rococo artists. The popular Rococo themes are some other example of how Rococo blueprint rejected the traditions of the Baroque fashion.

Three ornamental motifs in Rococo fashion, 1889; Jules Lachaise, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Origins of the Term Rococo

The Rococo definition was commencement used humorously as a variation of the French word rocaille, a method of decorating grottos and fountains with seashells, pebbles, and cement. Towards the terminate of the 17th century, people began to utilize this term to depict a decorative motif that emerged in the late Louis Fourteen style. This ornamental motif featured a seashell intertwined with the leaves of the acanthus plant.

The beginning time the term rocaille was used to designate a particular manner was in 1736 by jeweler and designer Jean Mondon. Mondon published a catalog of designs for furniture and other decorative ornaments in the rocaille manner. These designs for article of furniture, decorative doorways, and wall panels featured curved shells combined with twisting vines or palm leaves.

In 1825, almost a century later, the term Rococo was printed for the first time. In this context, the Rococo term described the erstwhile-fashioned style of the previous century. The term was used throughout the 19th century to draw compages, music, sculpture, and design that was overly ornamental. Since then, art historians have accustomed the Rococo term as the way of 18th-century European art.

Despite the fence surrounding the historical significance of the Rococo manner, it is acknowledged as a singled-out fashion of European design.

The History of the Rococo Style

The Rococo mode began with interior pattern and furniture. As a reaction to the strict rigidity of the Baroque era, Rococo pattern was excessively ornamental. Sometimes fine art historians refer to the Rococo period every bit Late Baroque, which began in French republic equally a reaction to the formal manner of Louis 14. When the reign of Louis Fourteen ended, the aristocratic and wealthy returned to Paris. There, they began to decorate their houses in the Rococo mode. Interior designers, engravers, and painters, including Juste-Aurele Meissonier, Nicolas Pineau, Pierre Le Pautre, and Jean Berain, developed a more intimate decoration style for the houses of nobles.

French Rococo

Rococo flourished in France between 1723 and 1759. French Rococo pattern was nearly prominent in salons. The salon was a new mode of room that was designed to entertain and impress guests. At the Parisian Hotel de Soubise, the Princess salon is a perfect example of Rococo salons.

Interior of the salon de la princesse , in the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris; NonOmnisMoriar, CC BY-SA three.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Exceptional artistry was a defining factor of the French Rococo style, particularly in the frames of paintings and mirrors. These designs often featured intertwined institute forms sculpted in plaster and aureate. These sinuous curves and nature-inspired designs were also popular in furniture pattern. Leading French furnishers like Charles Cressent and Meissonier were proponents of the Rococo way.

The Rococo manner dominated French art and design until the center of the 18th century, when the discoveries of Roman antiquities steered French architecture towards neo-classical designs.

Italian Rococo

The Rococo style was particularly exuberant in Italian republic. Venice was the epicenter of Italian Rococo. Italian Rococo designs like the Venetian commodes used the same ornamental decoration and curving lines as the French rocaille, but with a little extra. Many Venetian pieces were painted with flowers, landscapes, or scenes from famous painters. Chinoiserie, or the European imitation of Chinese and other Eastward Asian artistic traditions, was besides popular in Italian Rococo.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was a notable decorative painter from the Italian Rococo flow. Tiepolo painted ceilings and murals of palazzos and churches. During the 1750s, Tiepolo traveled to Germany with his son, and they decorated the Wurzburg Residence ceilings. Another famed Italian Rococo painter was Giovanni Battista Crosato. Crosato is best known for the quadrature mode painting of the Ca Rezzonico ballroom ceiling.

Tiepolo's ceiling fresco at the Wurzburg Residence; Myriam Thyes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Venetian glassware was a significant part of the Italian Rococo menses. It was during this time that colored and ofttimes engraved Murano glass flourished. Glassworks like mirrors with ornate frames and multicolored chandeliers were exported throughout Europe.

Southern German Rococo

It was in Southern Germany and Austria that the Rococo mode reached its summit. The published works of French architects and designers introduced the Rococo fashion to Germany, and information technology went on to dominate German art and design between the 1730s and the 1770s. While German designers and architects found inspiration in French architects similar Germain Boffrand and interior designers like Giles-Marie Oppenordt, German language Rococo architecture and pattern rose to new heights.

The Rococo style of architecture was adopted past German language architects who loaded it with even more ornate ornamentation and fabricated information technology far more disproportionate. The Rococo decorative way still dominates German churches today. Architects built curves and counter-curves out of molding, creating patterns that twisted and turned and walls and ceilings without correct angles. A particularly popular motif was stucco foliage that appeared to creep upwards the walls and across the ceiling. This ornate decoration was often silvered or gold, creating a stunning dissimilarity with the pale pastel or white walls.

The start building to be constructed in the Rococo style was the Amalienburg pavilion in Munich. Belgian-born designer and architect Francois de Cuvilies was responsible for designing this building and constitute inspiration in the French Marly and Trianon pavilions. The Amalienburg pavilion was initially built every bit a hunting lodge and featured a rooftop platform for shooting pheasants. The interior featured a Hall of Mirrors created past Johann Baptiste Zimmermann. The extravagance of this building was far across the architecture of French Rococo.

An east view of the Amalienburg pavilion in Munich; Digital cat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Eatables

Another exceptional instance of German Rococo architecture is the Wurzburg Residence. This impressive palace had a more Baroque exterior, but the interior reflected the light Rococo style. The residence was designed in consultation with French artists Robert de Cotte and Germain Boffrand and Tiepolo, the Italian Rococo painter, who created a mural higher up the three-level stairway. The stairway was a central characteristic of this residence, every bit was the stairway at the Augustusburg Palace. In the Palace, the grand stairway transported visitors upwards through a vision of sculpture, paintings, decoration, and ironwork.

Although the Rococo style was a secular style at its inception, the German period saw many Rococo-style churches. Throughout the 1740s and 1750s, Rococo architects designed several pilgrimage churches throughout Bavaria. The interiors of these churches have a distinctly Rococo mode. Notable examples are Dominikus Zimmermann'southward Wierskirche, which had a unproblematic exterior with few ornaments and simple colors. Upon inbound the church, however, you are greeted with an oval-shaped deambulatory that floods the church building with low-cal. Blue and pinkish stucco columns in the choir contrast the white walls, and plaster angels environs the dome ceiling.

British Rococo

Although the influence of Rococo was non felt as strongly in Britain as it was elsewhere in Europe, British silks, porcelain, and silverwork did take some inspiration from Rococo. The theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty was laid, in part, by William Hogarth, who argued that the S-curves and undulating lines of the Rococo were the foundations of beauty and grace in nature and art.

The Rococo style took its time in arriving in England. British furniture had followed the Palladian neoclassical model for a long fourth dimension, under the designer William Kent. Kent was an influential figure who designed furniture for Lord Burlington. Information technology was with Lord Burlington that Kent traveled to Italia betwixt 1712 and 1720. Kent brought back Palladio ideas and models and designed the furniture for Chiswick Business firm, Hampton Court Palace, and Holkham Hall among others.

The appearance of Mahogany in England around 1720 was the most significant Rococo evolution of the time. Alongside walnut wood, mahogany became pop for piece of furniture. It was furniture designer Thomas Chippendale whose work was closest to the Rococo style. The catalog of designs for chinoiserie, Rococo, and Gothic furniture chosen the Gentleman's and Cabinet-Makers Directory, was published past Chippendale in 1754. Although Chippendale's article of furniture was certainly inspired by Rococo, he did not use inlays or marquetry in his furniture, unlike French designers.

Thomas Johnson was another important figure in British Rococo furniture. In 1761, Johnson published his ain catalog of Rococo furniture designs, including effects based on Indian and Chinese motifs.

The Art and Design of the Rococo Menstruum

Equally you have seen, in that location was a lot of variation in design within Europe. While Due south Germany savage for Rococo architecture, the English preferred Rococo furniture. Whether it is painting, sculpture, furniture, or architectural pattern, nosotros tin see the singled-out Rococo style.

Rococo Interior Blueprint

Interior design was the spark of the Rococo menstruation. Although the Rococo manner grew to dominate painting, sculpture, and fifty-fifty music, information technology started as a mode of interior design. While the focus of architecture is typically on the external design, Rococo designers brought information technology inside. The height of Rococo interior blueprint lies in the salon.

Paris, Hôtel de Soubise, Chamber of Music; Parsifall, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Eatables

What Is a Rococo Salon?

The salon, much similar a parlor or living room, is a room designed to entertain and impress guests. Initially designed for the wealthy elite, the salon was a identify to show off their incredible wealth and concur intellectual conversations. At the time, enlightenment philosophy believed that external architectural environments encouraged a particular mode of life.

Rococo salons were central rooms decorated in the typically improvident and luxurious Rococo way.

Salons featured the typical elaborate Rococo decorations, serpentine lines, low-cal pastel colors, intricate patterns, asymmetry, and a lot of gold. The layout of salon rooms was often asymmetrical, a type of design known as contraste. Sculpted forms on walls and ceilings with abstract, leafy, and crush-similar textures were interior ornaments.

The Salon de Monsieur le Prince is a particularly famous example. Another notable example of the Rococo salon is that by Germain Boffrand in the Parisian Hotel Soubise. These salons all take ceilings, walls, and molding with intricate decorations of South-curves, natural shapes, and shell forms.

Rococo Furniture

The salon was a mode to reverberate social status, and the article of furniture within the salon was another. During the Rococo menstruation, there was an explosion in furniture making. Furniture designs emphasized the lightness of the Rococo menstruation. Pieces of furniture were fabricated to be physically lighter so that they could be moved around easily. Furniture also became more than delicate and refined, with thin curved tabular array legs.

Rococo furniture was free-continuing rather than leaning against the wall. This feature besides helped to add together lightness and versatility to a room desired by the aristocracy.

Mahogany wood became a popular forest for Rococo furniture because information technology was potent. The strength of mahogany meant furniture makers could carve dainty furniture that would not break. Many specialized furnishings emerged during the Rococo menstruum, including the voyeuse chair. Mirrors with ornately carved and busy frames also became increasingly pop during the Rococo era. Interior designers would use mirrors to enhance the sense of lite and spaciousness in a room.

Small-scale armchairs from the Lombard workshop, c. 1750, from the ballroom of the Sormani palace; Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rococo Compages: Baroque vs. Rococo

The 18th century Rococo compages was more graceful, lighter, and more elaborate than Baroque styles. Although Rococo compages was similar to Baroque designs in some ways, they differed significantly in others.

Baroque vs. Rococo Architectural Style

Every bit with interior pattern and furniture, Rococo architecture emphasized design and form asymmetry, while the contrary was truthful for the Baroque style. Baroque architecture was altogether more serious, using religious themes from the protestant reformation, while Rococo compages was more lighthearted, jocular, and secular. While Baroque buildings were designed for nifty public majesty, Rococo architecture emphasized privacy.

The Rococo curves and decorative elements we come across in furniture and interior decoration as well carried over into architectural design. The signature Rococo color palette of gold, white, and pastels was as well a significant feature of Rococo architecture.

Some famous Rococo buildings include the Portuguese Queluz National Palace, the Catherine Palace in Russia, the Chinese House in Potsdam, the Falkenlust and Augustusburg Palaces, parts of the Chateau de Versailles, and the Charlottenburg Palace in Germany. The Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli is known for his opulent and lavish designs and worked in Russia. Philip de Lange worked in both Dutch and Danish architecture, and Matthaus Daniel Poppelmann was a late Baroque architect who helped with the reconstruction of the High german city of Dresden.

Facade of the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, Russia; Westward. Bulach, CC BY-SA iv.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rococo Painting

The delicate and light-hearted nature of Rococo design is perhaps most visible in the paintings of the era. Using the light Rococo palette of pastels, gold, and white, and other Rococo design elements like asymmetrical curves and serpentine lines, Rococo painting is easily distinguishable. Incredible attention to detail, playful themes, and a pastel color palette are meaning Rococo painting features.

Impeccable Attention to Detail

Inspired by artists from the Renaissance, Rococo paintings take incredible attending to detail. The French artist Francois Boucher is specially famous for his detail-oriented approach to painting. Boucher manages to capture the minute intricacies of ornate costumes and create beautifully detailed scenes.

Playful Subject Matters

Possibly the themes of Rococo paintings best highlight the jovial atmosphere of this fine art flow. Themes of youth, love, play, classical myths, idyllic landscapes, and portraits are typical of Rococo painting. The French painter Antoine Watteau is credited with making the playful Rococo subject matter popular. Watteau is known as the begetter of the fete galante genre of painting festivals, garden parties, and other outdoor events. Watteau painted scenes of pastoral landscapes and whimsical people socializing. Greek goddesses, cupids, and other mythological creatures often featured, blending reality with fantasy in a playful manner.

La Partie carrée ('The Foursome', c. 1713) past Antoine Watteau; Antoine Watteau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

The Rococo Color Palette

The colour palette of Rococo-era paintings differs significantly from that of the earlier Baroque menstruum. Baroque painters used deep and emotive colors, while Rococo artists like Jean-Honore Fragonard create lighthearted scenes with light pastel colors. Fragonard's The Swing is i of the well-nigh famous paintings of the Rococo catamenia. Light green swirls of foliage surround a woman in a light pink dress, flirtatiously flinging off her shoe equally she swings.

The Swing (1767) by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rococo Sculpture

The sculpture of the Rococo menstruum was dynamic, theatrical, and colorful. A sense of movement in all directions permeates these sculptures. Sculptures were closely integrated with architecture and painting and could often be found within churches.

Early French Rococo sculpture is much lighter than the classical Louis XIV style. Madame de Pompadour was a patron of Rococo sculpture, and she deputed multiple works for her gardens and chateaux. A sculpture of cupid carving his love darts out of Hercules' society is a famous Rococo sculpture by Edme Bouchardon. Y'all can find other examples of Rococo sculpture around Versailles fountains, similar the Fountain of Neptune by Nicolas-Sebastien Adam and Lambert-Sigisbert Adam fabricated in 1740. Post-obit their success, Frederick the Great invited these sculptors to create a fountain sculpture for his palace in Prussia.

Cupid (1744) by Edme Bouchardon; National Gallery of Fine art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Leading French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet is all-time known for his St. Petersburg statue of Peter the Great, and he also created smaller works in terra cotta or statuary for wealthy collectors. Falconet was not the but sculptor to produce smaller series of sculptures for collectors. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Michel Clodion, Jean-Louis Lemoyne, and Louis-Simon Boizot all created sculpture series.

Italian Antonio Corradini was i of the leading Rococo sculptors in Venice. He traveled throughout Europe, working in Saint petersburg for Peter the Bully for a time and in Austrian and Napalese majestic courts. Corradini's sculptures have a more sentimental feeling to them, and he fabricated a number of dainty sculptures of veiled women.

Rococo Porcelain

During the Rococo period, small-scale porcelain sculptures began to emerge. Initially synthetic to supplant the sugar sculptures on large dining tables, porcelain figures soon became popular as decorations for mantlepieces. As the number of European porcelain factories grew throughout the 18th century, pocket-sized porcelain sculptures became available to middle-grade people. Equally the century progressed, the sheer amount of overglaze decoration on these colorful porcelain sculptures also increased.

The Meissen porcelain factory is the oldest in Europe and remained the well-nigh of import until effectually 1760. Johann Joachim Kandler was the principal modeler at the Meissen factory. Franz Anton Bustelli, a German sculptor, worked at the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufacturing plant and was famous for his range of colorful figures that sold across Europe. Following his example, Etienne-Maurice Falconet became the director of the Sevres Porcelain factory. Here he produced diverse small-scale sculptures in series on themes of lightheartedness and love.

Listeners at the Well (1756) by Franz Anton Bustelli; Rufus46, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Eatables

Rococo Music

Although Rococo music is not besides known as the subsequently Classical and earlier Baroque forms, it has a place in musical history. The Rococo music fashion, similar much of the Rococo motion, adult out of the Baroque era. In French republic, fashion galant, or the elegant style of music, was intimate music that was light, refined, and elaborate. Influential French Rococo composers include Louis-Claude Daquin, Jean Philippe Rameau, and Franscois Couperin. In Germany, the two sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Philip Emanuel Bach pioneered Rococo music or the "sensitive style".

The second half of the 18th century saw a backlash against the overuse of decoration and ornamentation in the Rococo manner. Christoph Willibald Gluck led this reactionary movement which eventually became the Classical style. The Variations on a Rococo Theme past Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was equanimous in the style of Rococo, although it was not written during the Rococo era.

Rococo Fashion

The extravagance, refinement, ornamentation, and elegance of the Rococo style were not lost in Rococo fashion. Women'south manner during the 18th century was sophisticated and highly ornate in true Rococo style. Commencement in the Royal Court, these fashions shortly spread to the cafés and salons of the bourgeoisie.

Towards the end of Louis Xiv'southward reign, a flowing gown known equally the robe volante became popular. A bodice, rounded petticoat, and large pleats flowing downwardly the back were the prominent features of this dress. A night and rich color palette of fabrics accompanied heavy and bold design features. Following the death of Male monarch Louis XIV, manner styles began to modify with the Rococo trends.

Rococo fashion was more frivolous, much lighter, and more revealing. A pastel color palette, an overabundance of bows, lace, frills, ruffles, and a lowcut neckline characterized Rococo women's fashion. A new gown, known every bit the robe a la Francaise had a tight bodice and ordinarily a large number of ribbon bows down the front. This apparel had wide panniers and was busy with lavish quantities of flowers, lace, and ribbon. Jean-Antoine Watteau, the painter who captures intricate detailing of stitching, lace, and other trimmings on ornate gowns, was the inspiration for Watteau pleats.

Woman'due south robe à la française, England, circa 1765. Silk satin with weft-float patterning and silk passementerie; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Around 1718, the mantua and pannier became fashionable. These were wide hoops that extended the hips sideways, worn underneath the dress. These items shortly became essential staples in Rococo fashion. The iconic await of the Rococo era is the dress with extended hips and excessive amounts of decoration. Special occasions called for very wide panniers, some reaching upwardly to 16 feet in diameter. Smaller hoops were for everyday wear.

This style of garment originated in 17th century Spain and was initially designed to hide a significant tum.

The Aureate age of Rococo fashion was effectually 1745 when a more oriental and exotic culture known as a la turque became pop in French republic. Madame de Pompadour was integral in promoting this style when she commissioned a painting of herself equally a Turkish Sultana past Charles Andre Van Loo. The 1760s saw a less formal fashion style emerge. The polonaise, a shorter dress inspired by Smoothen fashions, made the ankles and underskirt visible. The polonaise apparel also immune women to move effectually with significantly more than ease.

The robe a l'anglais, or English clothes, was another popular style in the latter one-half of the 18th century. This wearing apparel included more than masculine style elements like long sleeves, broad lapels, and a short jacket. A total skirt with a pocket-size railroad train, merely no panniers, a snug bodice, and a pocket-size lace kerchief around the neck completed the ensemble. A redingote, a combination of an overcoat and a cape was some other new Rococo fashion item.

In addition to the multitude of different garments, accessories were an essential part of Rococo style in the 18th century. Accessories like necklaces and jewelry added to the opulence and decadent decoration on the gowns. Women in short sleeves were required to clothing gloves at official ceremonies.

The Gradual Reject of the Rococo Style

It was non long until the Rococo emphasis on gallantry and decorative mythology inspired a reaction. The French Academy started education a more Classical style of fine art and De Troy, a prominent Classical artist, became the University'south director in 1738. Although the Rococo catamenia was in decline in France, information technology continued to flourish in Austria and Germany.

Madame de Pompadour was a prominent and influential figure throughout the 18th century, promoting Rococo art and mode, and contributing to its refuse. In 1750, Madame de Pompadour sent her brother and several artists, including the architect Soufflot and engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin, on a two-twelvemonth trip to written report Italian archeological and artistic developments. This group returned passionate near Classicism and Abel-Francious Poisson de Vandieres, Madame de Pompadour's blood brother, became a Marquis.

La Marquise de Pompadour en jardinière (c. 1754-1755) by Charles-André van Loo; Charles-André van Loo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vandieres was also made the managing director-general for the King's buildings and he was responsible for shifting French architecture towards the neoclassical. Cochin, an influential art critic denounced the style of Boucher, which he called petit style. Rather, Cochin called for a grander fashion of painting and architecture that emphasized nobility and classical antiquity.

Jacques-Francois Blondel and Voltair added their voices to the resounding criticisms of the superficial nature of Rococo fine art. The 1760s hailed the beginning of the stop for the Rococo style, as artists began calling for fine art with purpose and value. Rococo had officially passed away past 1785 and was replaced with Neoclassicism.

The ridicule of Rococo as superficial and frivolous spread to Germany past the end of the 18th century. Although Rococo managed to remain popular in Italy and certain German states, it was thoroughly wiped out by the Empire Manner second wave of Neoclassicism.

Famous Rococo Artists

There were so many painters, architects, and sculptors to sally during the Rococo period. Of the many, at that place are a few that have made lasting impressions on the earth of decorative fine art, including Francois Boucher, Elisabeth Louise Vigee le Brun, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Francois Boucher (1703-1770)

Of all the prominent Rococo artists, Boucher certainly deserves a place on this list. Famous for his portrayals of ancient Roman and Greek mythologies, Boucher'southward paintings shaped the course of the Rococo fashion. Every bit a young art student, Boucher studied during the late Baroque menses and traveled to Italy. He also studied the Dutch landscape style.

Boucher became very famous amid French artists in his day. The voluptuous way in which Boucher portrayed figures in his paintings earned him a significant amount of notoriety. Many of Boucher's paintings featured shepherds and various forms of livestock in pastoral scenes. Of his works, the Triumph of Venus (1740) is thought to exist his most famous, only it is in close contention with The Breakfast (1739) and The Grape Eaters (1749).

The Triumph of Venus(1740) by François Boucher; François Boucher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)

French Rococo printmaker and painter Jean-Honore Fragonard is one of the most famous painters from the Rococo period. Although he lived during the end of the 18th century, as Rococo began to decline, he created hedonistic paintings. During his lifetime, Fragonard also painted multiple works for the purple family, including The Coming together (1771).

Fragonard met Boucher when he was merely eighteen years of historic period, and although Boucher refused to work with Fragonard because of his lack of feel, he sent him to study with Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin. Despite his early lack of feel, Fragonard became one of the most prolific painters in French fine art history. A particularly famous Fragonard painting is The Stolen Buss (1788).

Stolen Buss (late 1780s) by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)

Although he died earlier the Gilded age of Rococo, Jean-Antoine Watteau was one of the most influential figures in the movement. It is Watteau who is credited with pioneering the Rococo style which he reached by integrating his own artistic flair with elements from masters like Peter Paul Rubens and Titian.

Watteau's style was particularly colorful, with vibrant hues and a lot of depth. Many of Watteau's works are typical of the Rococo fashion in their theatrical appearance. Watteau was also famed for his incredible ability to capture minute and intricate details, particularly in ornate garments. Perhaps Watteau's most famous painting is Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera,which he completed in 1717. Other notable works include Pierrot (1719) and Embarkation for Cythera (1717).

Pilgrimage to Cythera, so-called The Embarkation for Cythera(1717) by Antoine Watteau; Antoine Watteau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Elisabeth Louise Vigee le Brun (1755-1842)

One of the well-nigh prominent female person artists in French history, le Brun is known best for her opulent portraits. When le Brun developed her artistic skill, she was non immune to attend any of the formal art schools or academies. Fortunately, her father was an artist and he taught her to pigment.

At just xv years of historic period, le Brun began working as a professional person painter. Despite the sexism of the twenty-four hours and the many who shunned her piece of work, le Brun was placed in the Royal Academy at 28 years of age by King Louis Sixteen and Marie Antoinette. Le Brun went on to paint some of the about famous paintings in the history of France, with her most well-known piece beingness Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress (1778).

Marie Antoinette in Courtroom Apparel (1778) past Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)

A famed Venetian painter, Tiepolo is well-known for his highly decorative and overly elaborate paintings, often depicting royal figures. Tiepolo had a unique mode during the Rococo period, having studied nether several artists influenced by the High Renaissance. Equally a result of his education, Tiepolo'due south style was a combination of Rococo and Renaissance.

Of his many works, The Marriage of the Emperor Frederick and Beatrice of Burgundy (1752) is probably his almost famous. This incredibly significant historical event was portrayed in typical Rococo style. An opulently decorated hall with arches, flowing curtains, and elegantly dressed figures adorn the canvas of this famous painting.

The Marriage of Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy (1727-1804) past Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo; Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Giovani Antonio Canal (1697-1768)

Amend known as Canaletto, Giovani Antonio Canal was one of the most famous figures of 18th century Rococo. The Italian-born painter showed early artistic promise and became 1 of the nearly famous artists in both the Rococo and Venetian school movements.

Having traveled extensively throughout Europe during his life, Canaletto was well-known for his incredibly realistic cityscapes. Among the most famous paintings from his youth are The Archway to the Grand Canal, Venice (1730), and The Mason'due south M (1725). Canaletto completed both of these paintings every bit the Rococo motion was outset to grow in France. Information technology was thanks to the deportment of Canaletto that Rococo spread to Italy.

Canaletto'due south The Entrance to the Grand Canal, c. 1730; Canaletto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

A prominent Rococo British artist, Gainsborough is best known for his intricately detailed portraits and elegant landscapes. Gainsborough was one of the most prominent members of the St. Martin's Lane Academy, which was founded by Hubert Francois Gravelot after Rococo had crossed the channel from France.

Remembered as 1 of the most famous 18th-century British Painters, Gainsborough'south Rococo paintings are amidst his about celebrated. Although many of Gainsboroughs most loved paintings are landscapes, his well-nigh famous Rococo painting is The Blue Boy which he painted in 1770.

Jonathan Buttall (The Blueish Boy)(c. 1770) by Thomas Gainsborough; Thomas Gainsborough, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Full of opulence, aureate, and extravagance, the Rococo style of the 18th century is immediately recognisable. Although the movement did not last very long, information technology certainly fabricated an impression and many of the artists from this period remain important historical figures.

Have a look at our Rococo art webstory here!

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Source: https://artincontext.org/rococo-art/

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