When was rococo style popular

In 18th century Europe, the Rococo style became prevalent in interior design, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts. A reaction to the rigidity of Baroque style, the frivolous and playful Rococo first manifested itself with interior design and decorative work. In French, the word salon simply means living room or parlor, and Rococo salons refer to central rooms that are designed in the Rococo style.

The Rococo interior reached its height in the total art work of the salon. Rococo salons are characterized by their elaborate detail, intricate patterns, serpentine design work, asymmetry, and a predisposition to lighter, pastel, and gold-based color palettes. As another means of reflecting status, furniture rose to new heights during the Rococo period, emphasizing the lighthearted frivolity that was prized by the style. Furniture design became physically lighter, so as to be easily moved around for gatherings, and many specialized pieces came to prominence, such as the fauteuil chair, the voyeuse chair , and the berger et gondo la.

Furniture in the Rococo period was freestanding, as opposed to wall-based, in order to accentuate the lighthearted and versatile atmosphere that was desired by the aristocracy. Mahogany became the most widely used medium due to its strength, and mirrors also became increasingly popular.

Rococo salons often employed the use of asymmetry in design, which was termed contraste. Interior ornament included the use of sculpted forms on ceilings and walls, often somewhat abstract or employing leafy or shell-like textures.

Salon de la Princesse : A Rococo interior from the Hotel de Soubise, Paris that demonstrates highly elaborate ceiling work. In France, the style began to decline by the s. Criticized for its triviality and excess in ornament, Rococo style had already become more austere by the s, as Neoclassicism began to take over as the dominant style in France and the rest of Europe.

Rococo style in painting echoes the qualities evident in other manifestations of the style including serpentine lines, heavy use of ornament as well as themes revolving around playfulness, love, and nature. Painting during the Rococo period has many of the same qualities as other Rococo art forms such as heavy use of ornament, curved lines and the use of a gold and pastel-based palette.

Additionally, forms are often asymmetrical and the themes are playful, even witty, rather than political, as in the case of Baroque art. Themes relating to myths of love as well as portraits and idyllic landscapes typify Rococo painting. Antoine Watteau is considered to be the first great Rococo painter.

His influence is visible in the work of later Rococo painters such as Francois Boucher and Honore Fragonard. Watteau is known for his soft application of paint, dreamy atmosphere, and depiction of classical themes that often revolve around youth and love, exemplified in the painting Pilgrimage to Cythera.

Francois Boucher became a master of Rococo painting somewhat later than Watteau. However, British designers continued to imitate contemporary French work for silver, porcelain and furniture that were being made at the top end of the market. Many pattern books of Rococo ornament of the type issued by Lock and Copland were published in England in the s and s. Their popularity stemmed from the complex and irregular three-dimensional forms of the Rococo style and its emphasis on variety and invention, which placed great demands on the design and modelling skills of British craftspeople.

These designs were largely intended for craftspeople and designers and were hugely influential in disseminating the Rococo style. Rather than copying the entire design, woodcarvers would mine them for inspiration, cutting them up and adding their own ideas. The most influential single set of pattern prints was put out as a book of furniture designs. The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director by Thomas Chippendale the Elder, was published first in parts and then as a collected edition in This book broke new ground in both being a source of design ideas and pattern book for potential customers.

The patterns had the greatest effect among the smaller furniture makers, mostly outside London. Explore a selection of pattern prints from The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Directors in our slideshow below:. Explore the range of exclusive gifts, jewellery, prints and more. As contemporary critic Jeb Perl wrote, "Watteau's paired lovers, locked in their agonizing, delicious indecision, are emblems of the ever-approaching and ever-receding possibility of love.

As Jonathan Jones wrote, "In the misty, melting landscapes of paintings This painting formerly known as Gilles depicts Pierrot, a traditional character in Italian commedia dell'arte.

He is elevated on center stage in what appears to be a garden and he faces the viewer with a downcast expression as his white satin costume dominates, its ballooning midsection lit up. He seems almost like a two-dimensional cut-out figure. Other stock characters surround him but Pierrot remains separate as if he has stepped out of their scene. The negative space in the upper left further emphasizes Pierrot's isolation. As Jonathan Jones wrote, "Watteau makes the fiction of the picture manifest," as the character, "in his discomfort and alienation, rebels not only against his stock character role in the comedy, but his role in this painting.

His stepping out of the play is also a stepping out of the fiction painted by Watteau. As Jones wrote, "representation of theatrical, socially marginal worlds, following Watteau, is central to French modern art, from the impressionists' cafe singers to Toulouse-Lautrec's dancers and prostitutes and Picasso's Harlequins. I'm Everyman. What I'm doing is theatre, and only theatre. What you see on stage isn't sinister. It's pure clown.

I'm using myself as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time. This noted landscape depicts the entrance to the Grand Canal in Venice, with a number of gondoliers and their passengers maneuvering horizontally across the canvas. Their asymmetrical placement creates movement as three gondolas extend upward in the center and draw the viewer's eye into the distance, further emphasized by the perspective of the buildings on the right and the church on the left.

The subtle use of local colors give the piece a golden feel and a sense of the idyllic life of the times, which was informed by the Venetian school's love of Arcadian landscapes that heavily informed the Rococo aesthetic. Canaletto was a pioneer in painting from nature and conveying the atmospheric effects of a particular moment, which has led some scholars to see his work as anticipating Impressionism. As Jonathan Jones wrote, "the delicate feel for light playing on architecture The British art dealer Owen Swiny encouraged him to paint small, even postcard-sized, topographical views to sell to tourists, and the banker and art collector, Joseph Smith, became a noted patron, selling a large number of his works to King George III.

In Canaletto moved to London where he painted scenes of London, such as his Westminster Bridge Ever since his work has retained its popularity and influence: it was featured in the David Bickerstaff film Canaletto and the Art of Venice , and this painting was used in the video game Merchant Prince II Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle.

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Kimberly Nichols. The Art Story. Ways to support us.