Posts in Category: october 10
Nicolas de Largillière
Nicolas de Largillière, October 10, 1656 – March 20, 1746, was a French painter born in Paris and raised in Antwerp. He trained there with Anton Goubau, then worked in England as an assistant to Peter Lely and Antonio Verrio.
Largillière returned to Paris and established a successful career chiefly as a portrait painter. He was admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1686 and later served as its director and chancellor; his pupils included Jean-Baptiste Oudry.
Largillière died in Paris at the age of eighty-nine. His works are held by the Louvre Museum, National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery, London, and other major public collections.
Jean-Antoine Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau, October 10, 1684 – July 18, 1721, was a French painter and draftsman born in Valenciennes. He moved to Paris around 1702 and trained with Claude Gillot and Claude Audran III, whose work connected him with theatrical subjects and decorative painting.
Watteau became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1717, presenting The Embarkation for Cythera as his reception piece. His paintings of actors, musicians, and elegant figures in landscape settings established the fête galante as an academic category and influenced painters including Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater.
In declining health, Watteau traveled to London in 1720 and returned to France before dying at Nogent-sur-Marne at thirty-six. His paintings and drawings are held by the Louvre Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wallace Collection, National Gallery, and other major collections.
Maurice Brazil Prendergast
Maurice Brazil Prendergast, October 10, 1858 – February 1, 1924, was an American painter born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. His family moved to Boston in 1868, and he later studied in Paris with Gustave Courtois at the Académie Colarossi and at the Académie Julian.
Prendergast worked in watercolor, monotype, and oil, often depicting parks, beaches, city streets, and scenes of public leisure. He exhibited with The Eight in 1908, served on the selection committee for the 1913 Armory Show, and developed a post-impressionist style marked by flattened forms, strong outlines, and patterned color.
Prendergast moved to New York with his artist brother Charles in 1914 and remained there until his death. His work is held by the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Whitney Museum of American Art.
