Rococo is a type of art and architecture originating from France in the mid-1700s. ‘Rococo’ is a period rather than a specific style. The rococo style flourished for a short period before Neoclassicism swept the Western world. This style is characterized by delicate, ornamentation, lightness of color, and weight. This period is also called the ‘late Baroque’ or Regence period.
Rococo interior
The color palette of Rococo paintings is light, and lines are curvaceous (S curve), with substantial decoration. Paintings were made with asymmetrical values with heavy use of gold and a pastel-based palette. The themes were playful, sensual, and witty with a dreamy atmosphere. It was reactionary to its predecessor, the Baroque art which was rigid and politically themed. Rococo also took themes of myths of love, portraits, idyllic landscapes, and classical themes revolving around youth and love. Painters not bound by aristocratic rule took allegorical subject matters. These paintings depicted free ideas that would be seen by all classes.
Jean-Antoine Watteau's Pélerinage à l'île de Cythère (Pilgrimage to Cythera), 1717
The three most popular Rococo style painters are Jean Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, and Jean-Honore Fragonard. Antoine Watteau, the most well-known among all is considered to be the first great Rococo painter. His work influenced later Rococo painters such as Boucher and Fragonard. He is even credited for creating ‘Watteau pleats’, a style of gowns with broad hips.
Luis Paret y Alcázar, Charles III Dining Before the Court (1775)
Decline of Rococo
The death of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV in 1764 gave a huge setback to the style. The Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution gave importance to reason and scientific order. Rococo was connotated with excesses, frivolity, and opulence, its time was over. Rococo could only be supported by monarchies and as monarchies started falling Rococo’s patrons diminished. Moreover, since starting Rococo was not for the masses and they didn't find it tasteful.
