'Watteau Study by Fresnoy's Rules', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Watteau Study by Fresnoy's Rules

Date exhibited 1831

MediumOil paint on oak

Dimensionssupport: 400 x 692 mm frame: 745 x 1040 x 160 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

N00514

Not on display

Display caption

This painting is a tribute to the eighteenth-century French painter, Antoine Watteau. Turner exhibited it in 1831, as the companion piece to Lucy, Countess of Carlisle… shown on the far left. It illustrates a colouristic principle of the theorist CA du Fresnoy, that white ‘may bear an object back, or bring it near’.

Watteau appears in the centre, surrounded by admirers and examples of his work which Turner knew, including Les Plaisirs du Bal (the large painting on the left, now in Dulwich College Gallery) and La Lorgneuse (‘The Flirt’, the smaller framed picture) owned by his friend, the poet Samuel Rogers.

September 2004