Artist

Jean-Antoine Watteau

1684–1721 · born in Valenciennes · died in Nogent-sur-Marne

Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter born in Valenciennes in 1684. He invented the fête galante, a dreamy picture of elegant people in silk costumes having a party or flirting in a park, and he also loved painting actors and clowns from the theater. He died young, at 36, in 1721.