“The Louvre’s enigmatic painting par excellence.” That’s how Bernard Dufour, a French abstract painter from the 20th century, once described Pierrot, a 1718–19 painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau ...

As Christie's auctions off Jean-Antoine Watteau's long-lost work, TNR's art critic explores the tension and indecisiveness of his favorite painter. La Surprise was actually shown at Christie's in New ...

Outdoor celebrations—mythological bacchanals, picnics, and the like—have been a favorite subject of artists for centuries, as you already know if you’ve been keeping up with us. And among the best at ...

Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. Watteau’s images related to music and theater in the Met’s exhibition present us with an idealized, fictional ...

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Our first guide, presenting 15 masterpieces of European Painting, barely scratched the surface of the vast collection held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On March 24 and 25, Christie's ...

Today the Watteau train is getting a modern makeover from fashion designers who are putting their stamp on the style. Today the Watteau is getting a modern makeover from fashion designers who are ...

Sixty years ago a good picture by Jean Antoine Watteau cost less than $500. Last week Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum paid some $250,000 for its first Watteau painting. For $250,000 the Metropolitan ...

In a move that’s both a long-held dream come true and an acquisition with potential for art-world debate, the J. Paul Getty Museum announced Thursday that it has bought “The Italian Comedians,” a ...

There is a painting by Watteau, that most elusive of artists, that shows a young girl in silver-blue satin dancing pensively in a glade. Her partner is a fat man in oriental costume who doesn't seem ...