Nicolas Lancret

Nicolas Lancret (Paris, January 22, 1690 - ibid, September 14, 1743) was a French Rococo painter whose work is in the orbit of Watteau.

Biography

Le moulinet (Potsdam, Sanssouci Palace).

He trained as a painter mainly with Claude Gillot, teacher of the also painter Antoine Watteau. Lancret so admired and imitated Watteau's style that he has been dismissed as a mere imitator without originality. However, his way of painting is somewhat different: more defined profiles, a somewhat smoother brushstroke, and perhaps more vivid colouring.

Described frivolous life at the French court under the Regency (1715-1723) of Philippe II, Duke of Orleans. His paintings are characterized by elegantly dressed characters, delicate landscapes, and an atmosphere of placid joy.

He painted nearly 800 paintings. Some of them are The Four Ages of Man (Tate Gallery, London), The Music Lesson and The Four Seasons (both in the Museum of of the Louvre in Paris).

Sometimes before 1733 he painted a well-known series of The Four Elements for the Marquis of Beringhen. The original corresponding to The Earth is on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. An engraved series of the quartet was published shortly after, in which engravers such as Cochin, Nicolas Tardieu and Benoît Audran the Elder participated. It is believed that the engravings were commissioned directly by Lancret from these artists to be dedicated to the marquis.

Among his multiple portraits of actors, the four paintings he did of the dancer Marie Camargo (1730); that of the Wallace Collection in London is the best known.