Rococo

Art & Architecture

Rococo

Louis XIV 's

desire to glorify his dignity and the

magnificence of France resulted in
the monumental and formal
qualities of Versailles. But members
of the succeeding court began to
decorate their elegant homes in a
lighter, more delicate manner.
This new style has been known
since the last century as "rococo,"
from the French word, rocaille, for
rock and shell garden
ornamentation. First emerging in
the decorative arts,

rococo emphasized pastel

colors, sinuous curves, and patterns

based on flowers, vines, and shells.

Rococo

Rococo style started out in the decorative arts and architecture.

Furniture and facades became sensational, and interiors and
costumes are decorated with shells, frills, gold leaf and ribbons.

Rococo

In Germany

Rococo was favored by the princes,

in particular by Frederic II of Prussia.
It can be found in palaces or in
pilgrimage churches in Germany,
where it reached its limits.

Cuvilles Mirror Room, Anolienburg, Germany.

This is the finest example of Rococo interior design.

Rococo

Cuvilles, Anolienburg, Germany

Potsdam, Germany Tea House

In the 17th and 18th century it was summer residence of Prussian Kings and German Emperors.

Baroque architectural forms were not separate as in Classical style, but tended to blend together and overlap.

Rococo

Kaisersaal, Bavaria

Rococo

Kaisersaal, Bavaria

Rococo

style rooms were designed as total

works of art with elegant and ornate
furniture, small sculptures, ornamental
mirrors, and tapestry complementing
architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings

The 1730s represented the height of

Rococo development in France. The
style had spread beyond architecture
and furniture to painting and sculpture

Rococo

Painters
turned from grand, heavy

works to the sensual surface

delights of color and light, and from
weighty religious and historical
subjectsthough these were never
ignored completelyto more
intimate mythological scenes,
views of daily life, and portraiture.
Similarly, sculptors increasingly
applied their skills to small works
for the appreciation of private
patrons.

Ceres (Summer)
1712, Antoine Watteau
Oil on canvas
The National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC, USA.

Rococo -

was fashionable primarily in France.

The popularity of the Rococo style was inspired in part by

the works of the celebrated painter Antoine Watteau.

Watteau's

elegant paintings
perfectly embody the
Rococo ideal of
grace and
playfulness. In
addition, the painter's
compositions often
were asymmetrical.
This stylish
asymmetry in turn
became an important
characteristic of
Rococo art & design.

Rococo

Watteau was not the only

Francois

champion of the Rococo style,

however. Two artists,

Boucher

Franois Boucher &

Jean-Honor Fragonard
also created artistic confections that
dazzle viewers with their charm and
sophistication.
Jean-Honore
Fragonard

Rococo

Boucher
Best known for his
fashionably frivolous
depictions of rosycheeked aristocratic
ladies, pudgy putti,
and idealized
mythological
subjects, Franois
Boucher's paintings
are the essence of
Rococo.
Allegory of Painting
1765 Oil on canvas,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC

Rococo

Fragonards
works reflect the carefree world
enjoyed by France during the
Rococo period. The colors are
bright and shiny, and the brush
strokes are very delicate. He had
a great imagination, wit, and
refinement that combined to
create poetic canvases that
represent the best aspects of the
period of Louis XVI with skilled,
piercing observation.
A Young Girl Reading,
1776 Oil on canvas,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC

Rococo

Fragonard

One of Fragonard's most

representative works is the
playful painting The Swing, in
which a pastel clad lady flicks a
tiny shoe into the air while her
delighted lover watches.

After the revolution, he was

ousted and forced to paint in the
Neo-classical style, which he
refused to do. He died in poverty,
forgotten.
The Swing
1776 Oil on canvas,
Wallace Collection, London

Rococo -

The 1789 French Revolution halts the development of Rococo

rather suddenly, and neo-Classicism is brought back.

Marie Antionettes

court

painter during this period is

Elizabeth Vige le Brun (1755-1842)
Her style is neoclassical in exhibiting ideals
of simplicity and purity. Her work can also
be considered Rococo in its grace,
delicacy, and naturalism.
Portrait of Marie Antionette,
Queen of France, beheaded in 1793
Oil on Canvas, 1779,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. .

Marie Antionette & her children Oil

on Canvas, 1787
Versailles, France

Rococo

Vige le Brun
is recognized as the most famous
woman painter of the eighteenth
century.
After the arrest of the royal family
during the French Revolution
Vige-Le Brun fled France. She
lived and worked for some years
in Italy, Austria, and Russia,
where her experience in dealing
with an aristocratic clientle was
still useful. In Rome, her paintings
met with great critical acclaim and
she was elected to the Roman
Academy of Art.

Self Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782, National Gallery of Art, London

Rococo -

Vige le Brun

was received in Russia by the nobility

and painted numerous members of
the family of Catherine the Great.
While there, Vige-Le Brun was
made a member of the Academy of
Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg.
There are two portraits done at this
time displayed at the Utah Museum
of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City.
Princess Eudocia Ivanovna
Galitzine as Flora, 1799 Oil on
canvas, Utah Museum of Fine Arts
(left)
Portrait of Princess Natalia Ivanovna
Kourakin, nee Golovina,
1797, Oil on canvas, UMFA

Rococo -

Vige le Brun
was welcomed back to France during
the reign of Napoleon I. Much in
demand by the lite of Europe, she
visited England at the beginning of the
nineteenth century and painted the
portrait of several British notables
including Lord Byron.
In 1807 she traveled to Switzerland
and was made an honorary member of
the Socit pour l'Avancement des
Beaux-Arts of Geneva.

Self Portrait
1790 Oil on canvas,
Painted in Florence, Italy

Vige le Brun died in Paris at the age

of 87, leaving over 660 portraits and
200 landscapes.