1690 -1743 · Paris, gallant festival and theater

Elegant dances, country seasons and spiritual observation of society make Nicolas Lancret a master of the gallant festival after Watteau.

Nicolas Lancret was born in Paris in 1690 and died there in 1743. First trained in drawing and engraving, he entered Claude Gillot's studio, where he discovered theater, commedia dell'arte and the decisive example by Watteau. Received at the Royal Academy in 1719 as a painter of gallant festivals, he developed a personal language: gardens, meals, games, dance and conversations reveal the pleasures as much as the codes of Parisian society. The Meal on the Return from Hunting, painted around 1725 and kept at the Louvre, brings together elegant people, servants, a table set and dogs in a landscape where each gesture defines a social place. The Meal on the Return from Hunting, painted around 1725 and kept at the Louvre, brings together elegant people, servants, a table set and dogs in a landscape where each gesture defines a social place. The famous dancing Camargo Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, famous dancer the Opera, through the momentum of the skirt and the lightness of the step. The Saisons series combine weather, costume, activity and mood: Summer opens the landscape and illuminates the colors, while Winter tightens the figures around the cold. Lancret does not copy Watteau; it makes the party more narrative, more descriptive and often more directly linked to contemporary uses. The "Nicolas Lancret" selection notably compares Le Repas au retour de la chasse and La Camargo dansant. His reading favors composition.

Lancret observes pleasure as a social choreography: meals, dance steps and season regulate the distance between the figures as much as their elegance.