Powerpoint lecture presentation

1. The Pursuit of Pleasure
Rococo Art

2. Jean Léon Gérome, Reception de Grand Condé a Versailles, 1878
Life at the court of Versailles was highly formal and ritualized

3. The day would begin at 8:30 am with the king’s “getting up ceremony,” which was a
public ritual that members of the court were expected to attend

4. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV, 1701
The purpose of all of this pomp and ceremony was so the king could keep the
aristocracy under his control

5. Nicolas Lancret , Concert in the Oval Salon of Pierre Crozat's House at Montmorency, ca. 1720
Image source: Metropolitan Museum
After Louis XIV’s death in 1715, the French aristocracy abandoned Versailles and
flocked to Paris, where the aristocratic “salon” became the center of social life (salon is
French for “room”)

6. Jean Françoise de Troy, A Reading of Moliére, c. 1728
Hosted by prominent aristocratic women, salons were intimate social gatherings that
provided a welcome relief from the rigid formality of court life at Versailles

7. Jean-Baptiste-André_Gautier_Dagoty, Marie Antoinette Gives a Concert, 1775. Museum of Versailes
In this painting by Jean Françoise de Troy, we see a group of aristocratic women
listening to a reading from Moliére, a French playwright
This new culture of privilege and leisure gave rise to a new style of architecture, fashion,
and design known as the Rococo

8. Germain Boffrand, The Hotel Soubise, 1735-40
Paris
From the French word rocaille, meaning “shell,” the Rococo style is characterized by
pastel colors, and delicate ornamental patterns in the shape of scrolling vines, flowers
and shells

9. Elisabeth Vigeé Lebrun, Marie
Antoinette 1783
Wikimedia
The Rococo style affected everything from fashion, to
architecture, furniture, and porcelain
Sevrés porcelain dish from Versailles
Image source: http://versailles.org.uk/versailles/

10. Equestrian Portrait of Louis XIV,
1674
Decorative and light-hearted, the Rococo style was a
reaction against the imposing grandeur of Louis XIV’s official
style of art.

11. The style reflected the pampered lifestyle of the 18th century
aristocracy, who, as one contemporary put it, “We really have nothing
else to do but to seek pleasant sensations and feelings.”

12. Imagine an art based on the lifestyle of celebrity debutantes like Paris
Hilton and the Kardashians!

13. François Boucher, Madame
Pompadour, 1750
National Gallery of Art
“What kind of lifestyle did the aristocracy lead?

14. François Boucher, Madame
Pompadour, 1750
National Gallery of Art
“Remember that the aristocracy had enormous political power as well
as enormous wealth. Many chose leisure as a pursuit and became
involved themselves in romantic intrigues. Indeed, they created a
culture of luxury and excess that formed a stark contrast to the lives of
most people in France. The aristocracy—only a small percentage of
the population of France—owned over 90% of its wealth.”
Khan Academy

15. Jean-Honore Fragonard was one of the leading painters of the French
Rococo

16. His painting of The Swing, seen here amongst a collection of Rococo
paintings in the Wallace Collection, is one of the most widely
recognized examples of the the style

17. Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Swing, 1766
Wallace Collection, London
The painting depicts a well-dressed lady flirting with her lover while
another lover pushes her on a swing

18. As the swing arcs upward, she kicks off her shoe flirtatiously, providing
her secret lover with a peek up her skirt

19. Diminutive and sweet, the lady is like a fairytale princess, while the
lush setting evokes an enchanted garden with its feathery-soft foliage
and shimmering pastel colors

20. Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Swing, 1766
Wallace Collection, London
The playfully erotic subject matter makes this work typical of Rococo
painting — as does the style

21. Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Swing, 1766
Wallace Collection, London
The rich shimmering colors and loose brushwork of Rococo painting
was intended to provide pleasure (think of it as “eye candy”) rather
than moral or intellectual enrichment

22. François Boucher, The Marquis de
Pompadour, 1756
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
François Boucher was another leading French Rococo painter

23. François Boucher, The Marquis de
Pompadour, 1756
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
This painting depicts Madame Pompadour, mistress to King Louis XV

24. Francois Boucher, Toilette of
Venus, 1751 Metropolitan
Museum of Art
This painting, commissioned for Madame Pompadour’s private
residence at Versailles, the artist portrayed her in the guise of Venus,
luxuriating amongst silks, and satins, and pearls

25. Rococo painters were like the paparazzi of their day, capturing the
lifestyles of the rich and famous, and catering to their tastes

26. Louis Michel van Loo, Portrait of Denis
Diderot, 1767
Louvre
Web Gallery of Art
As we will see the Rococo went out of style with the rise of the
Enlightenment

27. Louis Michel van Loo, Portrait of Denis
Diderot, 1767
Louvre
Web Gallery of Art
Enlightenment philosophers condemned the style as frivolous, and
demanded a new kind of art that could teach morality and virtue

28. And the French Revolution would put an end to aristocratic privilege,
and the frivolous pursuit of pleasure