La Conversation

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La Conversation

Artist Jean-Antoine Watteau French, 1684-1721

Date1712-1713

DimensionsPainting: H: 19 3/4 in. (50.2 cm); W: 24 in. (61 cm);
Frame: H. 29 1/2 in. (74.9 cm); W: 33 3/4 in. (85.7 cm); D: 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1971.152

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesWaagen, G.F., Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, Supplement, 1857, p. 97, (probably no. 3 or 4).

de Goncourt, E., Catalogue Raisonné dell'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'Antoine Watteau, Paris, 1875, no. 123 (composition).

Mollett, J.W., Watteau, London, 1883, p. 68 (composition).

Schéfer, G., "Les portraits dans l'oeuvre de Watteau," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XVI, Dec. 1896, pp. 181-182 (composition).

Josz, V., Watteau, Moeurs deu XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1903, p. 316 (composition).

de Fourcaud, L., "Antoine Watteau: Scènes et figures galantes," Revue de l'Art ancien et moderne, Nov. 1904, v. 16, no. 92, p. 351 (print).

Zimmermann, E. H., Watteau, Stuttgart, 1912, p. XXV, repr. p. XXIII (print).

Gillet, L., Un grand maître du XVIIIe siècle, Watteau, Paris, 1921, pp. 79-80, no. 123.

Dacier, E. and A. Vuaflart, Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, II, 1922, pp. 37, 51, 63, 97, 122, 130, 161; III, 1922, no. 151.

Pilon, E., Watteau et son école, 2nd ed., Paris, 1924, p. 37.

Dacier, E., La gravure de genre et de moeurs, Paris, 1925, p. 60.

Dacier, E., Antoine Watteau, Dessinateur de figures de differents caractères, Paris, 1926, pp. 40, 144.

Réau, L., "Watteau," in Les peintres français du XVIIIe siècle, (ed. L. Dimier), Paris, 1928, I, pp. 14, 48, no. 192.

Parker, K.T., The Drawings of Antoine Watteau, London, 1931, p. 28.

Wildenstein, G., "L'exposition de l'art français à Londres, le XVIIIe siècle," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Jan. 1932, repr. between pp. 745.

Adhémar, H. and R. Huyghe, Watteau, sa vie - son oeuvre, Paris, 1950, pp. 39, 40, 85, 119, 140, 183, no. 110, pl. 55.

Parker, K.T., and J. Mathey, Antoine Watteau, catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessiné, Paris, 1957, I, under nos. 51, 58; II, nos. 533, 729, 915.

Mathey, J., Antoine Watteau, peintures réapparues, Paris, 1959, pp. 40-41, 67, 77, pls. 94 (detail), 97.

Camesaca, E., The Complete Paintings of Watteau, New York, 1968, no. 105, repr. p. 103.

"Public Art Museum Notes," Art Journal, vol. 31, no. 2, Winter 1971/1972, p. 201, repr.

Davidson, Ruth, "Museum Accessions," Antiques, vol. 101, no. 1, Jan. 1972, repr. p. 239.

"News Notes," Museum News, vol. 50, no. 5, Jan. 1972, p. 7.

Ferré, J., Watteau, Madrid, 1972, B. 53 (as attributed to W.).

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 81, no. 1249, Feb. 1973, repr. p. 129.

Davidson, Ruth, "Museum Accessions," Antiques, vol. 103, no. 3, March 1973, p. 440, repr.

Boerlin-Brodbeck, Y., Antoine Watteau und das Theater, Basle, 1973, pp. 204, 208-209, 220, 274, 330, 332.

Knudsen, Sandra E., "A Neo-Rococo Park Scene by Monticelli," Archivero I, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1973, p. 122, fig. 5 (merely cites TMA work as example of Watteau's Fetes galantes).

"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2 &3, 1976, p. 60, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 166-167, pl. 194.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 65.

Watteau, Milan, Mondadori, 1978, pp. 18, 126, repr. (col.), p. 19.

Morse, John, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 298.

Roland-Michel, M., Tout Watteau, Paris, 1982, no. 148, repr.

Posner, Donald, Antoine Watteau, Ithaca, 1983, pp. 111, 145-148, 150, 239, repr. fig. 102, p. 146.

Posner, Donald, "Les Fêtes galantes d'Antoine Watteau," L'Oeil, no. 350, September 1984, pp. 17, 20, repr. fig. 1, p. 16.

Grasselli, Margaret Morgan and Pierre Rosenberg, Watteau, 1684-1721, Washington D.C., 1984, no. P23, repr. (col.), pp. 295-297.

Watteau 1684-1721, Führer zur Austellung..., Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg, 1985, no. 37, pp. 34, 35, repr.

Roland-Michel, M., Watteau, An Artist of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1984, pp. 215, 266, fig. 186.

Moreau, F., and M, Morgan Grasselli, eds., Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), le peintre, son temps et sa légende, Paris-Geneva, 1987, pp.133 (D. Posner, "Watteau, 'Parklandscapist,'"), 173, 177 (M. Vidal, "Conversation as Literary and Painted Form: Madeleine de Scudéry, Roger de Piles and Watteau"), 269 (S. Whittingham, "Watteau and 'Watteaus' in Britain c. 1780-1851"), pl. 32.

Sotheby's New York, Old Master Paintings, June 3, 1988, no. 117, (not in sale).

Vidal, Mary, Watteau's Painted Conversations, New Haven, 1992, pp.1, 20-24, 32, 43, 46, 62, 134, 173, figs. 5, 24 (col.) and 25 (col. det.).

Rand, Richard, and Juliette Bianco, Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France, Hanover, NH, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 1997, cat. no. 2, pp. x, 5, 90-91, 92, 101, repr. (col.).

Wintermute, Alan, Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700 to 1750, London, 1999, pp. 27-28, fig. 16.

Temperini, Renaud, Watteau, Paris, Gallimard, 2002, p. 43, rep. (col.).

Sund, Judy, "Antoine Watteau and les charmes de la vie," Art Bulletin, no. 91, 2009 repr. (col.) p. 67.

Glorieux, Guillaume, Watteau, Paris, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011, p. 152, fig. 103 (col.) p. 155.

Bindman, David and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds., The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. 3, part 3, Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, p.98, fig. 88, repr. (col.) p. 99.

From Watteau to Fragonard: Les fêtes galante, Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, 2014, pp. 48, 208, repr. (col.) pp. 49, 206, cat. no. 5.

Jover, Manuel, "Watteau l'Enchanteur," Connaissance des arts, no. 614, 2014, repr. (col.) p. 18.

"De Watteau a Fragonard: Les fêtes galante," Livret de Visite, Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, 2014, repr. no. 104.

"De Watteau a Fragonard: Les fêtes galante," Le journal de l'expo, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Beaux Arts Magazine, 2014, repr. (col.) p. 5.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, British Institution, 1837, no. 160; 1844, no. 121.

Paris, Galerie Sedelmeyer, The Third Hundred of Paintings by Old Masters Belonging to the Sedelmeyer Gallery, 1896, no. 83.

Paris, Petit Palais, Le paysage français de Poussin à Corot, 1925, no. 352.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Exposition rétrospective d'art français, 1926, no. 116.

London, Royal Academy, European Masters of the Eighteenth Century, 1954, no. 244.

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Schönheit des 18. Jahrhunderts, 1955, no. 350.

Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, De Watteau à Prud'hon, 1956, no. 92.

Washington, National Gallery of Art; Paris, Grand Palais; Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg, Watteau, 1684-1721, 1984-1985.

Toledo Museum of Art; Hanover, NH, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France, 1997-1998.

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, De Watteau à Fragonard: Les fêtes galante, March 14-July 21, 2014, cat. no. 5.

Label TextWatteau invented an entirely new type of subject for painting, the fête galante, a small picture of elegant figures engaged in animated outdoor entertainment. These subjects, so evocative in mood and in the psychological interaction between their characters, informed a current of intimacy and charm in the early 1700s, and were imitated by a number of French artists. La Conversation represents such a social gathering with its bittersweet mood and gentle flirtation. Internationally celebrated, Watteau also painted portraits and some religious pictures. One of the greatest masters of drawing, he composed his paintings by selecting figures from sketches made from life.