Top 100 · Rococo paint
The 100 artists who gave his grace in the 18th century
From Watteau to Fragonard, from Tiepolo to Vigée Le Brun: portraits, gallant parties, pastels and decorations across Europe.
Rococo is born less as a doctrine than as a change of rhythm. After the Versailles ceremonial, the arts sought more intimate spaces, more mobile light, lighter colors and stories where conversation, desire, play and decor took center stage.
Portraits, parties, vedute, pastels and large decorations.
Understand before classifying
Rococo moves the show towards the intimate
With Watteau, the gallant party becomes a genre in its own right: elegant figures meet in landscapes where pleasure remains crossed by melancholy. Boucher amplifies the sensuality and decorative power of this painting, while Fragonard gives it speed, freedom of touch and almost improvised energy.
The movement is European. Venice opens its ceilings with Tiepolo and transforms the city into a theater with Canaletto and Guardi. The German and Austrian courts merge painting, stucco and architecture. In England, portraiture and landscape build another elegance, more attentive to character and nature. In Russia, portraiture and landscape build another elegance, more attentive to character and nature. In Russia, portraiture adapts these models to a new court society.
This Top 100 combines historical influence, pictorial quality, decorative importance and geographical diversity. It includes the artists at the heart of rococo as well as those who prepare for its appearance or accompany its transition to neoclassicism and romanticism.
Lighten
Color lightens and the touch becomes more mobile
Roses, blues, water greens and gold often replace large dark contrasts. This clarity does not erase the construction: it makes it more fluid and more immediately decorative.
To live
Living rooms, gardens and ceilings become complete worlds
Rococo thinks about painting with its environment. A portrait dialogues with the furniture, a gallant scene extends the garden and a fresco opens the architecture onto an imaginary sky.
Transform
Refinement also prepares new sensitivities
Greuze gives more weight to feeling, Chardin to the silence of objects, Goya to worry and David to moral demands. The 18th century does not close: it changes language.
The essentials
The ten artists who give rococo its identity
Gallant, pastoral festival, grand decor and veduta: ten entry points into the imagination of the 18th century.
#1
Antoine Watteau
Antoine Watteau makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Antoine Watteau collection
#2
François Boucher
François Boucher makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the François Boucher collection
#3
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Jean-Honoré Fragonard makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Jean-Honoré Fragonard collection
#4
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Giovanni Battista Tiepolo collection
#5
Jean Siméon Chardin
Jean Siméon Chardin makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Jean Siméon Chardin collection
#6
Jean Baptiste Greuze
Jean-Baptiste Greuze makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Jean-Baptiste Greuze collection
#7
Maurice-Quentin de La Tour
Maurice-Quentin de La Tour makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Maurice-Quentin de La Tour collection
#8
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Giovanni Battista Piazzetta collection
#9
Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Sebastiano Ricci collection
#10
Francesco Guardi
Francesco Guardi illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Francesco Guardi collectionChapter I · Ranks 11 to 25
Venice, Paris and the great European courts
Decorative painters, portrait painters and creators of gallant scenes are circulating a new taste.
#11
Canaletto
Canaletto illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensitivities.
See the Canaletto collection
#12
Giovanni Battista Pittoni
Giovanni Battista Pittoni illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Giovanni Battista Pittoni collection
#13
Giuseppe maria crespi
Giuseppe Maria Crespi unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European foyers of the 18th century.
See the Giuseppe Maria Crespi collection
#14
Corrado Giaquinto
Corrado Giaquinto unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European foyers of the 18th century.
See the Corrado Giaquinto collection
#15
Francesco Solimena
Francesco Solimena illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Francesco Solimena collection
#16
Giovanni Paolo Panini
Giovanni Paolo Panini unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European foyers of the 18th century.
See the Giovanni Paolo Panini collection
#17
Charles-Joseph Natoire
Charles-Joseph Natoire makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Charles-Joseph Natoire collection
#18
Antoine Coypel
Antoine Coypel makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Antoine Coypel collection
#19
Pierre Subleyras
Pierre Subleyras makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Pierre Subleyras collection
#20
Louis Jean François Lagrenée
Louis Jean François Lagrenée makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Louis Jean François Lagrenée collection
#21
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun collection
#22
Pompeo Batoni
Pompeo Batoni unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European homes of the 18th century.
See the Pompeo Batoni collection
#23
Anton raphael mengs
Anton Raphael Mengs deploys illusionist frescoes, portraits and architecture with the spectacular energy of Central European rococo.
See the Anton Raphael Mengs collection
#24
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough renews portraiture and landscape through attention to character, nature and the freedom of the brush.
See the Thomas Gainsborough collection
#25
Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds renews portraiture and landscape through attention to character, nature and the freedom of the brush.
See the Joshua Reynolds collectionChapter II · Ranks 26 to 50
From rococo to neoclassicism and romanticism
Sensitivity, portraiture and history painting accompany the profound transformations of the end of the century.
#26
Francisco Bayeu
Francisco Bayeu illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Francisco Bayeu collection
#27
Francisco de Goya
Francisco de Goya illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Francisco de Goya collection
#28
Franz Anton Maulbertsch
Franz Anton Maulbertsch deploys illusionist frescoes, portraits and architecture with the spectacular energy of Central European rococo.
See the Franz Anton Maulbertsch collection
#29
Cosmas Damian Asam
Cosmas Damian Asam deploys illusionist frescoes, portraits and architecture with the spectacular energy of Central European rococo.
See the Cosmas Damian Asam collection
#30
Joseph-Marie Vien
Joseph-Marie Vien makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Joseph-Marie Vien collection
#31
Louis Boilly
Louis Boilly makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Louis Boilly collection
#32
Nicolas Bernard Lépicié
Nicolas Bernard Lépicié makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Nicolas Bernard Lépicié collection
#33
François Gérard
François Gérard makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the François Gérard collection
#34
Joseph Karl Stieler
Joseph Karl Stieler deploys illusionist frescoes, portraits and architecture with the spectacular energy of Central European rococo.
See the Joseph Karl Stieler collection
#35
Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence renews portraiture and landscape through attention to character, nature and the freedom of the brush.
See the Thomas Lawrence collection
#36
Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Franz Xaver Winterhalter deploys illusionist frescoes, portraits and architecture with the spectacular energy of Central European rococo.
See the Franz Xaver Winterhalter collection
#37
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres collection
#38
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Pierre-Paul Prud'hon collection
#39
Anne-Louis Girodet
Anne-Louis Girodet makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Anne-Louis Girodet collection
#40
Jean-Baptiste Regnault
Jean-Baptiste Regnault makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Jean-Baptiste Regnault collection
#41
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Pierre-Narcisse Guérin collection
#42
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David makes portraiture, the gallant scene or the grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the Jacques-Louis David collection
#43
Francesco Hayez
Francesco Hayez unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European homes of the 18th century.
See the Francesco Hayez collection
#44
Johann Friedrich Overbeck
Johann Friedrich Overbeck deploys illusionist frescoes, portraits and architecture with the spectacular energy of Central European rococo.
See the Johann Friedrich Overbeck collection
#45
William blake
William Blake renews portraiture and landscape through attention to character, nature and the freedom of the brush.
See the William Blake collection
#46
Carlo Maratta
Carlo Maratta unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European homes of the 18th century.
See the Carlo Maratta collection
#47
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Luca Giordano collection
#48
Carlo Dolci
Carlo Dolci unites decorative virtuosity, luminous color and open space in one of the great European foyers of the 18th century.
See the Carlo Dolci collection
#49
Alessandro Magnasco
Alessandro Magnasco illuminates the diversity of the 18th century through painting attentive to grace, decor and the transformation of sensibilities.
See the Alessandro Magnasco collection
#50
James Tissot
James Tissot makes portraiture, the gallant scene or grand decor an art of elegance, light and presence.
See the James Tissot collectionChapter III · Ranks 51 to 75
Portraits, parties, animals and architecture of light
The specializations reveal all the visual and social richness of 18th century painting.
#51
Jean Marc Nattier
His mythological portraits envelop the aristocracy in silky fabrics, pearly skin tones and a perfectly rococo grace.
See the Jean-Marc Nattier collection
#52
Nicolas de Largillière
Between baroque splendor and new elegance, he transforms worldly portraiture into a spectacle of color, texture and presence.
See the Nicolas de Largillière collection
#53
Carle van Loo
First painter to Louis XV, he mastered both gallant pastoral works and large religious and decorative compositions.
See the Carle van Loo collection
#54
Nicolas Lancret
Heir to Watteau, he populates gardens and gallant festivals with light conversations, games and very fine social observation.
See the Nicolas Lancret collection
#55
Jean Baptiste Pater
Its small outdoor scenes extend the gallant party with a lively, supple and delicately theatrical touch.
See the Jean-Baptiste Pater collection
#56
Jean-François de Troy
His fashion paintings capture the leisure of the elite while his Roman decorations give the rococo a monumental scale.
See the Jean-François de Troy collection
#57
Jean Baptiste Oudry
Animals, hunts and tapestries become under his brush a decorative repertoire of remarkable precision and energy.
See the Jean-Baptiste Oudry collectionAlexandre-François Desportes
Painter of royal hunts, he combines animals, landscapes and precious objects in sumptuous but always readable compositions.
See the Alexandre-François Desportes collection
#59
Jean Baptiste Perronneau
His pastels and oil portraits favor psychological liveliness, frank harmonies and a presence without stiffness.
See the Jean-Baptiste Perronneau collection
#60
Louis Tocqué
It gives the official portrait a supple elegance, attentive to fabrics and faces, between Rigaud and new sensitivity.
See the Louis Tocqué collection
#61
François-Hubert Drouais
His court effigies shine with their luxurious costumes, refined accessories and perfectly mastered social staging.
See the François-Hubert Drouais collection
#62
Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre
Decorator and first painter to the king, he linked gallant mythology, religious painting and great academic commission.
See the Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre collection
#63
Christmas Hallé
His narrative compositions balance baroque energy, academic drawing and clear palette in the spirit of the 18th century.
See the Noël Hallé collection
#64
Jean-Baptiste Le Prince
His Russian scenes and landscapes spread a taste for exoticism thanks to a picturesque touch and his mastery of aquatint.
See the Jean-Baptiste Le Prince collection
#65
Pierre Gobert
A portraitist of the classes, he fixes princesses and children in a brilliant atmosphere where the costume fully participates in the story.
See the Pierre Gobert collection
#66
Pierre-Jacques Volaire
Its eruptions of Vesuvius transform the natural spectacle into a nocturnal theater, between scientific curiosity and decorative sublime.
See the Pierre-Jacques Volaire collection
#67
Hubert Robert
Ruins, gardens and imaginary architecture allow it to combine elegance, memory and the pleasure of walking.
See the Hubert Robert collection
#68
Hyacinthe Rigaud
His art of ceremonial portraiture established the vocabulary of majesty, draping and presence that the 18th century inherited.
See the Hyacinthe Rigaud collection
#69
Rosalba Carriera
Its velvety pastels give faces a powdery and intimate light which becomes one of the signatures of European rococo.
See the Rosalba Carriera collection
#70
Giandomenico Tiepolo
He inherits his father's aerial virtuosity but adds a more familiar, ironic and deeply human observation.
See the Giandomenico Tiepolo collection
#71
Bernardo Bellotto
Its sharp and bright urban views transform Dresden, Warsaw and Vienna into architecture of memory.
See the Bernardo Bellotto collection
#72
Jacopo Amigoni
A cosmopolitan traveler, he diffuses clear, elegant and fluid painting from Venice to London, Madrid and Munich.
See the Jacopo Amigoni collection
#73
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini
Its fast and bright decorations contributed to the international expansion of Venetian taste at the beginning of the 18th century.
See the Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini collection
#74
Gaspare Diziani
Its nervous touch, warm colors and moving compositions give Venetian rococo a very personal energy.
See the Gaspare Diziani collection
#75
Francesco Trevisani
In Rome, he combined elegance of drawing, softness of expressions and narrative clarity in religious subjects as well as in portraiture.
See the Francesco Trevisani collectionChapter IV · Ranks 76 to 100
A broader and more diverse European history
Women artists, British portrait painters, Russian painters and transitional voices complete the panorama.
#76
Paul Troger
Its ceiling frescoes open churches and abbeys to luminous visions where architecture and painting merge.
See the Paul Troger collection
#77
Johann Georg Platzer
His small painted cabinets concentrate costumes, metals and gestures in scenes of almost jeweled virtuosity.
See the Johann Georg Platzer collection
#78
Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
Remarkable eclectic, he reinvents old styles with technical ease adapted to the taste of 18th century collectors.
See the Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich collection
#79
Jean Etienne Liotard
Pastel allows him to capture fabrics, skins and looks with a silent clarity that contrasts with the ceremonial portrait.
See the Jean-Étienne Liotard collection
#80
Anton Graff
His portraits favor the truth of the face and psychological concentration, already announcing neoclassical sobriety.
See the Anton Graff collection
#81
George Romney
His elegant portraits combine brush fluidity, natural poses and a particularly modern theatrical sensitivity.
See the George Romney collection
#82
Francis Cotes
Master of English pastel, he balances the freshness of the skin tones, the richness of the costumes and the direct presence of the model.
See the Francis Cotes collection
#83
John hoppner
His portraits of British society extend Reynolds' great tradition with a freer and more romantic touch.
See the John Hoppner collection
#84
William hogarth
Its moral consequences transform painting into a satirical chronicle, full of details, movement and social intelligence.
See the William Hogarth collection
#85
George Stubbs
His anatomical study of the horse gives animal portraits monumental precision and a very British elegance.
See the George Stubbs collection
#86
Joseph Wright of Derby
Candles, experiences and forges become under his brush theaters of light devoted to modern curiosity.
See the Joseph Wright of Derby collection
#87
Richard Wilson
He transposes the classical Italian landscape into a broad vision which lastingly establishes the British school of landscape.
See the Richard Wilson collection
#88
John singleton copley
Its descriptive precision and sense of character give the colonial and then London portrait a new authority.
See the John Singleton Copley collection
#89
Benjamin West
He adapted great history painting to the contemporary world and played a central role in British art institutions.
See the Benjamin West collection
#90
Henry Raeburn
His portraits combine frank construction, direct light and psychology, with an economy of means that has become emblematic.
See the Henry Raeburn collection
#91
Adelaide Labille-Guiard
Portraitist and teacher, she defends the place of women artists while mastering large official portraiture.
See the Adélaïde Labille-Guiard collection
#92
Anne Vallayer-Coster
His still lifes display flowers, objects and materials with a virtuosity that opens the doors of the Royal Academy to him very early on.
See the Anne Vallayer-Coster collection
#93
Marie-Gabrielle Capet
A student of Labille-Guiard, she makes portraiture and the workshop scene a space of precision, sociability and transmission.
See the Marie-Gabrielle Capet collection
#94
Marie-Denise Villers
His rare portraits combine intimacy, clear light and the silent affirmation of the artist at the turn of the century.
See the Marie-Denise Villers collection
#95
Marguerite Gérard
His refined domestic scenes extend Fragonard's spirit into a more intimate register, attentive to women and interiors.
See the Marguerite Gérard collection
#96
Constance Mayer
With Prud'hon, she develops a sentimental painting with soft gestures, melted shadows and a strong emotional charge.
See the Constance Mayer collection
#97
Fyodor Rokotov
His portraits surround the faces with a vaporous material that gives the Russian aristocracy a mysterious and inner presence.
See the Fyodor Rokotov collection
#98
Vladimir Borovikovsky
He combines sentimental grace, landscape and costume refinement in portraits from the end of the Russian 18th century.
See the Vladimir Borovikovsky collection
#99
Giacomo Ceruti
His portraits of modest people introduce a striking realistic gravity into a century often associated with refinement alone.
See the Giacomo Ceruti collection
#100
Jean-Germain Drouais
His brief career shifted French painting from rococo refinement to neoclassical rigor and heroism.
See the Jean-Germain Drouais collectionSources and extensions
Continue the 18th century visit
Biographical and stylistic landmarks were compared to museum collections and art history resources.
Rococo is deeper than its lightness
Behind the silks, the clouds and the gardens, these hundred artists tell the story of a society in motion. The painting becomes more intimate, the portrait more psychological, the decor more enveloping and the landscape more sensitive. Even its pleasures sometimes carry an element of distance, melancholy or worry.
To choose a reproduction, first observe the desired atmosphere: Watteau brings dreamy poetry, Boucher a decorative presence, Fragonard a luminous energy, Chardin calm and Tiepolo a feeling of space. The collections linked to each sheet allow this visit to be extended artist by artist.
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