Watto paintings. Antoine-Jean tears a new era in painting: Rococo

Jean Antoine Watto, better known as Antoine Watteau (Fr. Jean Antoine Watteau, October 10, 1684, Valencienne - July 18, 1721, Naban-sur-Marne) - french painter Both the artist, the founder and the biggest wizard of Rococo style.

Biography Antoine Watto

Antoine Watto was born on October 10, 1684 in the city of Valencienne. Watto's childhood was unhappy, partly because of his not easy character, and to some extent because of the Father. His father was an ordinary carpenter and did not have a sympathy for the artistic obligances of the Son, although he allowed him to be a student of the city artist Jacques-Albert Gena.

When Antoine was eighteen years old, in 1702, he left home and went to Paris, where he set up a copier. It was a heavy job, for a small payment earned by money barely enough to feed.

Antoine Watto's biography changed its move in 1703 through acquaintance with Claude Most. The latter saw the potential young artist And he suggested him the status of the student.

In the period from 1708 to 1709, Watto studied at CLOD evian. Communication with these artists awakened interest in the theater and decorative art.

Creativity Watto

The works of Rubens that Antoine studied in the Luxembourg Palace were greatly influenced on creativity. Wanting to get to Rome, Antoine Watto decides to enter the Art Academy. In 1710, he returned to Paris as a creative mature artist. Many of their works are devoted to military topics.

In 1717, Antoine writes one of his best work - "Pilgrimage to the island of Cefera." For this work, he receives a special title of "artist of gallant festivals".

No less famous picture "Caprice", written in 1718. The essence of the scenes of the artist's paintings is revealed not only by direct plot, but mostly the finest poetry, which they are imbued.

Watto was the creator of a kind of genre, traditionally called "gallant festivals". The essence of these scenes is revealed not so much in their direct plot meaning, how much in the finest poetrywhich they are imbued. "The Holiday of Love" (1717), like other pictures of Watto, contains a rich range of emotional shades, which begins the lyrical sound of the landscape background.

Watto opened artistic value Fragile nuances, feelings, barely catchy by replacing each other. His art for the first time felt the disorder of dreams and reality, and therefore it is marked by the seal of melancholic sadness.

At the end of 1717, Watto fell ill with tuberculosis, in those days it was a death sentence. The disease was displayed by the manifestation of sadness in his works. For some time he tried to resist, even visits the UK at the end of 1719 to change the climate.

The last days Antoine Watto spent in country house His friend, he died of illness on July 18, 1721. For his 37 years, he left the descendants about twenty thousand paintings.

Watto was a very popular painter and lived quite rich. He did not value the money and did not consider them. Keep a hairdresser declared to him and offered a new wig - from a natural human hair.

- What's the beautiful! - artist admired. - What kind of naturalness! He wanted to pay a hairdresser, but he politely refused to make money, saying that the read the honor for honor to give this wig a great painter if he would receive at least one or maybe a couple of his sketches. Watto immediately with an unprecedented generosity hung a pack of sketches, and, satisfied with the deal, the hairdresser went.

But Watto could not calm down. It seemed to him that he was pushing a poor man. A week after this case, one friend, coming to him in the workshop, found Watto at Molbert - he began new picture Bypass all orders. "I want to give to that bad-haired hairdresser," he said to a friend. "Everything seems to me that I deceived him." A friend was worth the big job to dissuade the artist from this commendable intention.

Watto Antoine - biography, facts from life, photos, reference information.

Watto Antoine (Jean Antoine Watto, Watteau) (October 10, 1684, Valencienne - July 18, 1721, Shana-sur-Marne), French painter and draftsman. In household and theatrical scenes - the gallant festivals marked by the exquisite tenderness of colorful nuances, the trepacy of the picture, recreated the world of the finest mental states.

Antoine Watto was born in the Flemish city of Valencienne, soon he was departed to France, in eighteen years later came to Paris, without money, without work, without patrons. He worked in the picturesque workshop of the famous Marshan Marietta on the notre lady bridge; Around 1704-1705 became a student of the famous decorator artist Claude Hillo, who also wrote the scenes from the life of the actors. From 1707-08 he has been working in CLOD evian, a woodcarpeter. Thanks to the evident who performed the duties of the keeper of the picturesque collection of the Luxembourg Palace, Watto met the series of Rubens. Dedicated to the history of Mary Medici, works of Flemish and Dutch masters who had a strong impact on the technique and coloring his work.

Early paintings

Early small genre pictures - with the image of a funny street scenes ("Satira for Doctors", Ok. 1708, Moscow, Museum fine arts them. A. S. Pushkin), a stray shaughter with Surcom ("Savoyar", 1716, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), episodes from soldiers' life ("Bivouuck", Ok. 1710, Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin; " Recruits, catching regiment ", approx. 1709, Nantes, Museum of Fine Arts;" Military Retail ", Ok. 1716, Hermitage) - Detect the sharpness and originality of the perception of the world, the artist, undoubtedly, is looking for values \u200b\u200bnot in the pretentious art of the era Louis Xiv.. And addresses the art of the 17th century - the peasant genres Louis Lenin, Callo graphics, Flemish masters.

In the period 1712-19. Watto is fascinating writing scenes from theatrical Life. In the canvases "Actors french Theater.»(OK 1712, Hermitage)," Love on the Italian stage "(Berlin, Art museums), "Harlequin and Colombin" (ok. 1715, London, Wallace Gallery), "Italian Comedians" (1716-19, Washington, National Gallery) He used sketches of liked poses, gestures, the Mimics of the actors who did in the theater, which became His with the face of living feelings. Polon. high poetry Sad I. good image Naive Prostacy, Hero of the Fair Third Gown Theater in Pierrot Suit in the Lodin Room (Paris, Louvre).

The finest nuances of human experiences - irony, sadness, anxiety, melancholy - open in his small pictures with a picture of one or more figures in the landscape ("Lukusnitsa", 1715, Louvre; "Caprician", Ok. 1718, Hermitage; Metzsenet, 1717 -19, New York, Metropolitan Museum). The heroes of these scenes are offended and shy, awkwards, mumble, lukava and coquettes, often sad. An ironic alienation, which always sings in the pictures of Watto gives them a shade of an irreal, fantastic and slipping mirage. The elegance and virtuoso ease of writing, the overflow gamma of carminous, green, lilac flowers, the variety of tonal shades is invas with a poetic game that these images are embodied. Watto characters are far from reality, as if playing by the pantomime, they depict serene life In a completely special world on the verge of the theater and reality, the world created by the imagination of the artist.

Pilgrimage to the island of Cefera

So called galant scenes Watto - "Joy of Life" (Ok. 1715, London, Gallery Wallace), "Venetian holiday" (Edinburgh, National Gallery Scotland) depict the world of dreams with a shade of sadness. For the "Pilgrimage to the island of Ceferu" Watto was admitted to the members of the French Academy (1717-18, Louvre, Paris; Late version - Charlottenburg, Berlin). This picturesque elegion of Watto is not built on collisions, action (unclear even, sailing or return is shown on the canvas), but only for barely feeled shades of mood, a common poetic and emotional atmosphere. The composition of "pilgrimage" is deprived of stability - the heroes of the groups are rushed deep into the paintings, they diverge in pairs, then suddenly turn to the viewer with gestures or eyes. Characters seem to be subordinate to the "visible" music - waves ride and falling lines, uniting all the procession, almost dance moves Couples, pauses, alternations of color spots create a feeling of hearing melody.

The iconography of "gallant festivals" ("FETES GALANTS") goes back to the "Gardens of Love", known from the era of the Middle Ages. However, in contrast to parking idylls, Rococo "Gardens of love" Watto personifies not just a holiday of beautiful nature, in colorfully sophisticated canvases, if the poetry of feelings and thinking about human life on Earth is painted into the penetration of sad lyrical intonations. In 1719-20, a seriously ill painter visited England (possibly, hoping for the Tips for English doctors), where he enjoyed great success; Subsequently, the art of Watto had a significant impact on the English painting of the middle - the second half of the 18th century.

Upon returning to Paris for a shop "Great Monarch" belonging to Zherenu, who, who exhausted Watto asked the shelter, he wrote one of his most famous works and the only one he was pleased, "Sign of Lawn Zersen" (1720, Berlin, Art Museums ). According to Horsen himself, "she was written in a week, and then the artist worked only in the morning; Fragile health did not allow him to work longer. " Household scene With the image of the interior of the shop (in the style of "antique shops" D. Tenirs) is full of metaphor - reflections about his time: the cuzzers are packaged in the drawer, the portrait of the king Louis XIV - arise associations and with the name of the shop, and with the oblivion of the past century. The last days of Watto spent in the nuzhnaya not far from Paris, where he was transported theater costumes, props for future paintings, and where he wrote the image of Christ for the local church. In the manner of Watto, never climbing, however, to the height of his teacher, worked french artists Pater and Lanya.

October 10, 1684 (1684-10-10) July 18, 1721 (1721-07-18) (36 years) Франция!} Wikipedia Watto, Antoine Views 1

Satire on doctors.

gallant festivals Holiday love

Jean Antoine Watto, more famous as Antoine Watto-French painter and artist, founder and the largest Rococo style wizard. Watto belongs to the number famous artists In the world history of art. Thanks to the efforts of the Gekroch brothers, Baudelaire and Villine, he took the place at first in the Wallace collection, then in Louvre (in 1869 there were 8 of his paintings) and, finally, in the history of the arts.

Jean Antoine Watto was born on October 10, 1684 in the city of Valencienne in the carpenter's family. IN early age Watto was a student of the artist Jacques-Albert Gena. Watto arrived in Paris in 1702 from Northern France, from Valencienne. From 1703 to 1708, Watto worked in the workshop of Claude Resident, copied and depicted the plots italian comedy. From this important stage creative formation The artist has been preserved only one picturesque testimony - Moscow picture Satire on doctors.

In the following years, Watto tried himself in different genres, the controversial chronology of a few preserved work of this period does not allow you to make certain conclusions about the evolution of his interests, but its manner becomes more free, smear is more fresh and easy.

In 1717, Watto was awarded the rank of academician. In 1719-1720 the artist visits England. At the end of 1717, Watto fell ill with tuberculosis. The last days of Antoine Watto spent in the country house of his friend, he died from tuberculosis on July 18, 1721. For 36 years, he left the descendants about twenty thousand paintings.

Watto was the creator of a peculiar genre, traditionally called gallant festivals. The essence of these scenes is revealed not so much in their direct plot meaning, but in the finest poetry, which they are penetrated. Holiday love (1717), like other pictures of Watto, contains a rich gamut of emotional shades, which begins the lyrical sound of the landscape background. Watto opened the artistic value of fragile nuances, feelings, barely catchy by replacing each other. His art for the first time felt the disorder of dreams and reality, and therefore it is marked by the seal of melancholic sadness.

Jean Antoine Watto, more known as Antoine Watto (Fr. Jean Antoine Watteau., October 10, Valencienne - July 18, Kaban-sur-Marne) - French painter and draftsman, founder and the largest Rococo style wizard.

Watto belongs to the number of famous artists in the world history of art. Thanks to the efforts of the Gekroch brothers, Baudelaire and Villine, he took the place at first in the Wallace collection, then in Louvre (in 1869 there were 8 of his paintings) and, finally, in the history of the arts.

Biography

Watto arrived in Paris in 1702 from North France, from Valencienne. From 1703 to 1708 Watto worked in the workshop of Claude Zhillo, copied and depicted the plots of the Italian comedy. From this important stage of creative formation of the artist, only one picturesque testimony was preserved - the Moscow picture of "Satira for Doctors".

In the following years, Watto tried himself in different genres, the controversial chronology of a few preserved work of this period does not allow the definable conclusions about the evolution of his interests, but his manner becomes more free, smear - more fresh and easy.

In 1710, after a short trip to Valencienne, Watto lived again in Paris, in such a favorite atmosphere of painting, music and theater. Among his close friends are the writer and editor of the French Mercury Antoine de La Rock, traders, paintings, Ramami and Glass Zhersen and Siraua, the actors of the Italian comedy, poets and musicians.

Formed out of a rigidly regulated academic system, Watto calmly thought about and selected his stories that fascinated him, not taking care of the hierarchy of genres, freely surrendered to the will of feelings and fantasies. He did not like to work as an order, preferring freedom of plan and the game of imagination. He wrote landscapes, masquerads in the spirit of hillo, portraits of Italian actors, holidays in parks, caring more about the mood, emotional and picturesque richness of the scene than about the scrupulous portrait similarity or solemn greatness.

Creation

Watto was the creator of a kind of genre, traditionally called "gallant festivals". The essence of these scenes is revealed not so much in their direct plot meaning, but in the finest poetry, which they are penetrated. "Holiday of Love" (), like other pictures of Watto, contains a rich range of emotional shades, which begins the lyrical sound of the landscape background. Watto opened the artistic value of fragile nuances of feelings, barely catchy each other. His art for the first time felt the disorder of dreams and reality, and therefore it is marked by the seal of melancholic sadness.

Theatre

Watto loved theater plotsAlthough it is unlikely to accurately reproduced the episodes of certain performances. In the theater, he was attracted by the flight of imagination, the living embodiment of fantasy, finally, the sincerity of the game, which he did not find in life, like a hypocrisy. Character figurative world Watto corresponds to the powestness of rhythms, smoothness of small, as if vibrating smears, tenderness of exquisite colorful consonance, variability of color nuances.

Its wonderful drawings are endowed with painting, even more so that they are usually made in three colors (red, white and black), which made it possible to transmit the feeling of colorful shades and thin gradations of the plastic shape. After fearless domination historic genre and allegorical scenes watto opened a variety of real types french society of that time - soldiers and beggars of Savoyarov, nobles and actors of the Fair Third Theater.

Decorative art

Watto preferred small pictures, but he was and a master decorative art, I myself did an ornamental panel for the interiors of the mansions, painted the doors of the carriage, Clavesis and Werera, which influenced the architectural decor Rococo. AND decorative work, I. large web - "Pilgrimage to the island of Cefera" (), and famous "Sign of Zersen" () distinguish typical features: amazing painting, trembling and tender; the finest gamma of fleeting moods; Virtuoso composite skill - director's skill, suddenly stopped superbly thoughtful theatrical action in the very important moment dramatic Development relationships and characters characters.

Work

• "Bivak", about 1710, State Museum Fine arts, Moscow;
• "Savoyar with Surcom", 1716, State Hermitage, St. Petersburg;
• "Holiday of Love," Dresden;
• "Society in the Park", about 1720, Dresden;
• "Difficult offer", about 1716,
• "Caprician", about 1718, State Hermitage, St. Petersburg;
• "MESTSETEET", 1719, Metropolitan Museum;
• "Pilgrimage to the island of Cefera", 1717-1718, Louvre, Paris;
• "Accommodation", Louvre, Paris,
• "Sign of shop E. F. Zhersen", 1720, Picture gallery, Berlin-Dale.

Watto and movies

In 2007, the film "Mystery of Antoine Watto" was shot in France famous actress Silvi test in the lead role.

Watto Antoine, an outstanding French painter, with whose work is connected by one of the significant stages of the development of household painting in France. The fate of Watto is unusual. Nor in France, nor in neighboring countries were not in the years when he wrote the best things, not a single artist who could compete. Titans XVII century did not live to the Watto era; The same, who after him glorified the XVIII century, became known to the world only after his death. In fact, Fragonar, Kantne de la Tour, Perrono, Chardin, David in France, Thipolo and Longs in -italy, Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainesborough in England, Goya in Spain - all this is the middle, and even end of XVIII. century. Watto was alone, he probably did not know; Around were rivals, recovered honors and occupied high positions, Paints like Kouapel or De La Foza, now almost forgotten history.

Words about the "fragility of the Watto World", which have long become truisy, did not lose justice: this is a kind, art created by the world, which connected two historical periodswhich connected the connection that is so easy to adopt for an elegant rocial garland, but for which the tightness tightly stretched, the string is ready to break. Meanwhile, the art of the artist is still able to cause an idea of \u200b\u200bsomething rather sophisticated than deep. The world created too much, where thoughtfully smiling, the submissive will of the fate of the ladies and Cavalers are committed, as if under the ceremonial melodies of the forgotten menuets, melancholic walks past the dull marble statues and balustrades, between rows of slender trees, along the streams with artificial waterfalls; Where gentle silk overflows are so good against the backdrop of pale foliage or theatrical picturesque in the golden clouds of the evening sky. And it is unlikely that there is a resolutely separating the artist from these associations and oppose the excessive psychological complexity and the reflection of the XX century. It is more important to determine what he is inseparable from his time, what was ahead of him, and sometimes he became alien to him at all; To see the deep personal attitude of the master to life, where bizarre and paradoxically joined the enthusiasm and skepticism, sober sadness and the ability to sash the dream into almost tangible reality.

Watto was not a politician, but he was endowed with a special kind of sensitivity and lived among people of enlightened, inclined to radical and bold judgments, so characteristic of the era, when, according to Herzen, "the XVII century erased and the jumping dusk had already blocked the eyelid. powerful, active XVIII century; Already, the nations looked at themselves, the Montesquieu wrote, and the air from near-thunderstorm became dashed. " Who knows whether Watto can be called a philosopher, but its painting is quite philosophic; in his canvases a lot of anxiety, even tragedy; The artist lives in the world, the doomedness of which feels, but which does not get tired to admire, remaining, however, the contemplate not seeking to enter this world.

Watto's deeds are put in a bograph's deadlock. The case was somewhat smiled at him, but the artist seemed to avoid happy turns of fate - the fear of dependence was stronger fear of needs. The leaving from Valencienne, the city at that time rather than Flemish, rather than French, Watto came to Paris of the sixteen-seventeen years to Paris. The beggar provincial, weak, often chopped, proud and shy, fiercingly talking in French, in the capital he looked a lot of grief at first.

But even in these most difficult years, earning bread with cheap copies, Watto finds time to draw for yourself. Then there are small albums - a carne, where a pencil with an unexpected hand with an exquisite accuracy "stops the moments of boiling and blinding metropolitan life. In a kaleidoscope of rapid impressions, he is looking for the fact that the creation of the essence of art. From here, it is likely that his early addiction to the theater, where everything is no coincidence, where the plasticity and expressiveness of gestures and the positive will be turned out of generation to generation by turning skill - the Paris reality is cast on the stage of theaters and boalas in the form final and chased. FROM young years The theater becomes for Watto with a substantial face of reality, and reality often turns out the scene. The first happy meeting is Jean Mariett, the successor of his father, a famous trader with paintings, and his own connoisseur and a good artist. Marietta's shop, then the workshop of Claude Hillo, where Watto comes with a student, - the beginning is not just vocational education, but the entrance of the artist into the world of modern ideas to him. In the enlightened circles at this time, the desire to see life, bypassing pompous diagrams and the straight line of the past century's art, the attitude to reality becomes sad ironic, and the twilight is still licked the reign of Louis XIV leave no place for anything other than the beneficial doubt that one Able to occupy the minds of thinking people.

Born in Valencienne, on the border with Flanders, in the family of a poor roofer. The first lessons of painting received from the local artist Gran. In 1702 Watto moved to Paris. He studied at artists-decorators housing and evident, harbing art Rococo. Independent activity began in 1709-10. In the fore genre pictures ("Savoyar with Surcom") and the paintings of military topics ("Bivouuck", "war" and "military distribution") affected the impressions received in their homeland. Harma with Surcom - he, of course, is poor, and hungry, but the artist does not depict him unhappy. Savoyar is riddled, firmly stands on Earth, although it does not fit into the world With that natural ease that the heroes of "gallant festivals"; Savoyar is not outdoors outdoors, but on his background, he is in the same way as housing, a silent dialogue with the audience, and he also in his own way monumental, and not at all, his soul is not at all, in which the boyish straight matters combines alertness Lich adult man. Sometimes there is a feeling (in any case, and "housing", and "Savoyar with Surcom", and many drawings make it possible to talk about it) that the pencil and the brush of Watto stretched to the image of suffering and disadvantaged poor people, even cripples, but intended in drawings It turned into something completely different in Intines, as if the artist was afraid to open his alarmed false soul suffering, feared to be even in front of himself openly and just sad. After all, he himself is akin to these sufferers, he is sick, west, he is alien to the seductive festival, which does not get tired to admire. And he did not know about himself, and he did not want.

His pain and compassion seek to hide behind the carnival domino, behind the outer cynical and slightly sentimental smile, with whom they look at the life of his smart, but striving for the heroes as much as possible. Shakespeareskoye "Some in the Power of the Danish rot" is felt in the greenhouse of the heroes of Watto, but not with Hamlet tragedy, but with a shade of mocking fatalism. The skepticism of Watto characters is truly universal. They do not believe quite not only in good, but also in bad, they are no longer able to rejoice in a freely, but they are not capable of and truly worry, no feeling is realized from them to the end. Only the artist himself accommodates his pain and anxiety in the soul, but he allows himself to say about it only with a hint, tonality, color metaphor.

Already by 1711-12, the direction of Watto's creativity became different and decided finally: he writes the so-called "gallant scenes", depicting having fun and cavaliers ("Difficulty"), theatrical scenes, small bands, expressing the desire of the artist to go to the world of poetry, fiction. The flourishing of artist's creativity is 1712-17. Graceful expressive figures in its pictures form rhythmically related groups. Watto writes in a free fast manner that gives the whole image of living nervous tribacy, imposes paints with a little, as if a vibrating smear, and against the background of the silver greenery of the landscape of his characters in pink, blue, gentle-lilac suits, illuminated as if by flashing the ramp light, impress Gust, movement, dance. In 1712-16, Watto performed four oval paintings on the topic "Seasons" for the famous collector Pierre Croze. Most fragments and etudes have reached this work: "Sitting Wakh with the bowl" (Etude the main figure of the composition "Autumn"). Other etudes and sketches are also known to the "year of year", preserved in museums and private collections of the United States and Europe.

In 1717, Watto received the title of academician for the painting "sailing to the island of the Citera." Between 1717-21 originated famous works: "MENTER", "GILL", "SOCIETY IN PARK", in which increasing melancholy feels. According to the evidence of contemporaries, painting little satisfied Watto. He found more pleasant to draw than writing paintings. Watto drawings made by him from nature testify to the wonderful wizard observation, are striking with sharpness and conciseness. They reveal the depth of realistic trends in the work of this artist. After 1710 Watto created a group of drawings folk types. One of the best in it is a "shoe cleaner". In the same period, the masterpieces of the Watto-Draftsman were created: a series of his "naked shapes in the chair".

In the canvas "Caprice" (more precisely, the "inflated lips") "Watto World" is concentrated into the image of the capacious, the limit is saturated, where the insignificance of the situation turns away with unexpected drama. All here is typically for Watto: and the flying trees of the park, so reminiscent Luxembourg or Saint-Clas on the outcome of the summer, when dry leaves, circling, fall on the tracks, and leisurely people, gracefully strolling along the alleys, and high sky with pale golden clouds, and exquisitely dressed the pair in the foreground, occupied by the lazy ritual flirt, where the risky hints are indispensable and risky, and a harsh resentment, where everything is predetermined in advance and, alas, nothing can deeply shake tired souls reluctantly playing in real life of people. Among this world, shining with gentle paints of fading nature and transfusted silks, among this unhurried pir of toy and unscrewing passions suddenly he is suddenly dumb and a terrible color "explosion" - a dark, almost black chord of the dress of the heroine, a mourning strike Litavr, burst into carefree Gavot. This contrast is so significant for fumes, puppet Life soulfully anemic, albeit charming characters, that all the vigoros, the insignificance and the doomes of the gallant festival of the century of powdered wigs are exposed with the frightening force of sudden revelation. No, Watto is not tomis specific premonitions, but the ephemerality of reality, which belongs to himself, is undoubted. If not for mind it, then for artistic intuition.

"Caprician" was not, of course, last picture From the galant festivities Watto, but it feels like a kind of result, the quintessence of all the most important created by the artist in this way. Moreover, the last things of the wizard carry a unreasonable seal of restless insight. The world of values \u200b\u200bis changing for Watto, even the usual topics he writes quite differently. However, and in picturesque workscreated shortly before death ("Portrait of the Pathers Sculptor" and "Sign of Antique Store Zersen"), a new watto appears in front of the viewer - a realistic artist, embodied in his last creations, the truthful fixation of the movement of figures in his last creations, and his intelligent rhythm , and amazing color effects. A year before the death of Watto, the last masterpiece writes his masterpiece, the picture is not at all similar to everything he wrote before. As if the curtain was lowered in the theater, the lights of the masquerads were injured, the masks were removed, and in the light of the day the artist showed us the ordinary world in which he lived. In which he lived, and not those who were dreaming.

He wrote a signboard for his friend Zhersen, a merchant paintings, for his shop "Great Monarch". He again turns to this unassuming genre, the laws of which allow you to write what will do. Watto portrays on the sign for a shop itself, he writes that such an attractive and romantic world, which opened him twenty years ago and who now became an ordinary, where the art remains the same inexhaustible and full of miracles. No more skeptical cavaliers and mocking ladies in the ghostly carnival world. Now the former Heroes of Watto set foot on the dusty plates of the Paris pavement, they stumble down the street, entered the shop, they loved the paintings or pretended to be loved. They no longer play an ironic pantomime of life, but live, come into tense communication with art. Watto makes the wall of the walling permeable to the viewer's eye (it's simply no), although for character characters this obstacle exists and in their movements we guess the doors, and in the shop you see people who do not suspect that they are visible - as in the "chrome demons" of the forest. In the foreground, the portrait of Louis XIV in the box is stacked in the box - this Nomudren, but the acute metaphor of the epoch says goodbye to the last. And there, in the depths - a deep and thoughtful world, where it becomes clear, who is worthwhile: the art does not carequake the choice between those who love him, and those who only play this love. The sharpness of the future Satire of Hogarth and Goya is guessed in the deliberate gestures of the coxeding "professionalism" of amateurs. True connoisseurs a grateful artist gives special spirituality; And most importantly - the paintings in the dim depth of the shop, the art surrounding people shall with their earthly undoubted reality, which was not looking for before Watto. The world invented was separated for the first time with such a certainty of Watto from the world of real. "The sign of the shop Zersene" became, perhaps the picture of the Epoch of the Enlightenment in France, which the French is poeticly called the "age of lights". "Signboard" is not a dream, this is a compound of acute thought, tight sadness and confidence in the values \u200b\u200bof earthly, full-blooded being. Probably it was the last significant work Watto.

He died in the summer of 1721, having live only thirty-six years. Watto left the descendants a decision of a difficult question: why his so the same, not inclined to passions and decisive actions, the characters are so firmly in the souls of people near the mighty characters created by Rembrandt, Goya, Vrubel. The meaning of the art of Watto in a thousand advantages of his paintings, but there is something particularly significant: no one has been able to see him and did not seek to see the feeling in his paradoxical duality, to see funny in the sad, serious in funny, so twist the thoughts and experiences of the author and the characters that The paintings became almost the same as life itself. And yet: Watto felt fragility, and sometimes the emptiness of the world he wrote, but he also saw his unlikely spirituality, I understood that every day I would not return, and for the outgoing current day, as jealous of the days that had long passed.