Louis Joseph WATTEAU - Lot 168

Lot n° 168
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Estimation :
200 - 300 EUR
Louis Joseph WATTEAU - Lot 168
Louis Joseph WATTEAU VERY NICE SMALL DRAWING "THE HALL OF THE CAVALIERS" ATTRIBUTED TO Louis Joseph WATTEAU (1731-1798) CALLED WATTEAU OF LILLE Pencil on paper representing a conversation between horsemen and a group of people in front of a thatched cottage. Framed under glass. Sight : 17,5 x 27 cm His vocation as an artist probably came from his uncle Antoine Watteau, who died ten years before Louis Joseph was born. Little is known about his masters. We think first of Guillaume Lefebvre, because he had an apprentice named Watteau, but it could be another member of the family or a homonym without link with it. Fromentin mentions Gabriel-François Doyen as a hypothetical master. However, the most likely possibility concerns Jacques Dumont, who in 1750 was deputy rector at the Royal Academy, and who was the only professor to come from the north of France. It is therefore quite possible that he took Louis Watteau under his wing, to introduce him to the academy. He continued his training in Paris, at the Royal Academy. In December 1751, he was awarded the October quarter medal for a study. In 1756, he returned to Valenciennes and attended his father's funeral on March 19th. The following year, he married Agnès Dandoy (1734-1811), who was originally from Mons (Belgium). Together they had twelve children, including François Watteau who became a painter in his turn. While he was settled in his native town, he organized his work as the profession required: he owned his own studio, regularly took on apprentices and participated in the Saint-Luc guild. However, no work from this period has been found, and it is noticeable that there was little influx of orders. He therefore decided in 1765 to go and live in Lille, in order to have more customers. Unfortunately, the crisis of 1760 will have negative repercussions on the luxury craft industry, although it affects more the "small people". The mentality at the time is very conservative, and there are few patrons, there was not enough intellectual emulation to fix a young talent. Louis Watteau nevertheless tried to establish links with the nobles of the city. The beginnings of Louis Watteau were rather difficult, until he reached official functions in 1771. Indeed, he was to obtain the supervision of Louis Guéret at the school of drawing in Lille. At the death of this one in July 1778, he will be nominated as professor of drawing. At that time, he became the most prominent painter in the city, and even in the region. He will carry out a series of important orders at the local level, and will collaborate during certain official festivals. It was in this city that he made a decisive encounter: that of Charles Lenglart, who would be the godfather of his sixth child but also his main client. It is a social support, which he did not have in Valenciennes. He is himself an amateur painter and married to Anne Van Nuffel, belonging to the Brussels nobility. In 1770, he was assistant to the painter Louis-Jean Guéret at the Lille drawing school. He took over the direction of the drawing course in 1778. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Lille since its foundation in 1775, he became one of the main architects of the foundation of the Academy of Valenciennes in 1783. Permanently settled in Lille, he sold his position as a painter in Valenciennes in 1788 and became involved in the safeguarding of paintings confiscated at the beginning of the Revolution, which led him to be the initiator of the city's museum in 1795. Louis Joseph Watteau died on August 27, 1798 (10 fructidor of the year VI) in his lodging of the central school of Lille, rue des Arts.
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