Fête champêtre (Pastoral Gathering)
Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721), Assisted by Jean-Baptiste Pater (French, 1695-1736)
1718–21
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Jean-Antoine Watteau developed the genre of painting known as fête champêtre, featuring courting figures relaxing in a landscape. The elegant figures in Pastoral Gathering are grouped to suggest the three phases of love: childhood innocence (left), romantic enchantment and courtship (center), and amorous attainment (right). The transitory nature of romance is underscored by the changing autumn leaves and waning afternoon light. This painting may have been begun by Watteau toward the end of his career and finished by Jean-Baptiste Pater, who studied under Watteau and completed some of his unfinished projects.
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Original size
- 48.6 × 64.5 cm (19 1/16 × 25 3/8 in.)
Museum record · 2 owners · 6 exhibitions
Provenance
- Probably Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun, Paris, by 1773; probably his sale, Pierre Rémy, Paris, December 20, 22 and 23, 1773, as Watteau, “Vingt-six figures de pouces de proportions, occupées à chanter, à jouer & à se promener dans différens endroits d’un Parc très-orné d’arbres. La belle couleur rend ce Tableau un des plus capitaux qui soit connu de ce Maître” (Twenty-six figures, each five pouces in size, are engaged in singing, playing, and promenading in various areas of a park highly ornamented with trees. The beautiful coloring of the painting makes it one of the finest known by this master); probably Daniel Saint, Paris, by 1845; sold Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, May 4, 1846, as Watteau, for Fr 4900, probably to Richard Seymour Conway, fourth marquess of Hertford.
- Richard Seymour Conway, fourth marquess of Hertford (d.1870), Paris; by descent to Sir Richard Wallace, Bt. (d.1890); at his death to his widow, Lady Wallace (d. 1897); at her death to Sir John E. A. Murray Scott, Bt. (died1912); sold at Christie’s, London, June 27, 1913, as Pater, to Agnew, London, for 2415 gns.; sold, as Pater, to Walter S. M. Burns, Esq. (d. 1930), North Myms Park, Hatfield, 1919; sold Christie’s, London, June 20, 1930, as Lancret, to Frank T. Sabin, London, for 3045 gns.; sold to Max and Leola Epstein, Chicago, 1934; given to the Art Institute, 1954.
Exhibitions
- Manchester, City Art Gallery, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, as Pater.
- London, Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum, Painting, Porcelain, Bronzes, Decorative Furniture, and Other Works of Art, Lent for Exhibition… by Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., M.P., 1872-75, as Pater, Pleasure Seekers.
- Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Petit Palais), Exposition du paysage française de Poussin á Corot, 1925, as Pater.
- Chicago, The University of Chicago, Renaissance Society, Max Epstein Memorial Exhibition, 1955, as Pater.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of Eighteenth-Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, as Imitator of Jean Antoine Watteau.
- Art Institute of Chicago, New Light on Old Masters: French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996, no cat.
