French school of the 19th century

French school of the XIX century.
"Interior scene".
Watercolor on cardboard.
Measurements: 28,5 x 37 cm.
We see in this work a gallant scene, of great elegance and decorative sense, starring a painter who immortalizes the scene, while a group of sweet women dance and gesticulate elegantly dressed, in what looks like a palatial room characterized by large windows and mirrors that are observed on the walls. Gallant parties were a recurring theme in eighteenth-century painting, especially in the middle decades of the century, in direct relation to the Rococo lifestyle, but also in the first half. In fact, the genre known as "fêtes galantes" was created as such by the French painter Jean-Antontonine Watteau with his painting "Embarkation for the Island of Cythera", from 1712. This painting was the work with which Watteau entered the French Academy, so that the new genre was incorporated into the academic hierarchy. Since then we will see throughout Europe works marked by lyrical eroticism, where theater, music, conversation and myth become the scene of love. In the creation of this new gallant genre will have a crucial importance the Italian comedy, whose characters, scenery and movements will be reflected in the works. François Boucher, the other great painter of the French Rococo together with Watteau, was one of the main continuators of this theme.