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Sign shop Gers

Antoine Watteau • Painting, 1720, 308×163 cm
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About the artwork
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Genre scene
Style of art: Rococo
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1720
Size: 308×163 cm
Artwork in selections: 29 selections

Description of the artwork «Sign shop Gers»

Famous "Shop Gers" - the last and, as many believe, the finest painting by Antoine Watteau. It is so rich coloristic that it contains all the color possibilities of the future of the Rococo. Courtnee the fact that the picture was created with a very utilitarian purpose – it really had to be a sign, a kind of outdoor advertising for store works of art on the bridge Notre Dame, belonging to a friend Watteau the Gers.

In 1720, the year Watteau returned from an overseas trip. England paid tribute to his talent: here Watteau valued almost more than in his native France. But long to enjoy the recognition was not necessary. Cool and damp British climate has exacerbated long-standing disease – tuberculosis. Half-dead, the artist was forced to return to Paris. Live it was no more than. By this time 35-year-old Watteau was not only widely known, but very rich. However, as before, he never comes to get own house. The past life he preferred to live under the shelter of someone from friends. So it was this time. Dealer art Gersen gladly gave shelter emaciated by phthisis the artist.

In gratitude and to "stretch your fingers, longing for work", Watteau was asked to write to the institution of the sign – something like a Billboard a half to three meters, revealing to the buyer that is waiting for him when he crossed the threshold of the shop Gers. Gersen, by the way, he refused – he was terribly embarrassed that such a famous artist to write his modest shop. But Watteau was impossible to argue with, he was so stubborn.

"Sign shops Gers" was over in just a week, although the work of Watteau could only in the morning, afternoon till evening was spent on the restoration. Tuberculosis killed him, and apparently, the artist felt it: now the painting is called "good Will court". We see in it the most ordinary day in a shop that sells paintings. Someone from buyers eyeing the paintings. Someone has already decided – and buy it Packed in a box to deliver at the designated address. Carefully and realistically painted furnishings and fabrics, masterfully arranged pieces.

And the picture on the "Sign Gers" is not conditional, but a specific and recognizable. On the walls – only the work of your favorite artists Watteau: velázquez, Rubens, Jordaens. But in the box pack portrait Louis XIVwritten court painter Rigaud. The king-the Sun disappears from the scene. The sun king played into the box. For a biography of Watteau this image is very symbolic, because he was destined to become the ancestor of a new era in painting that occurred as a reaction to art of the past century of Louis XIV, the Rococo.

But the most significant in the "Shop Gers" – its flavor. There are no pure and bright colors. Instead, we see an incredible wealth of sophisticated shades, their subtle iridescence. Say, all future devotees of the Rococo and Watteau's followers did not need to invent anything in the field colors: all of its features absolutely abundantly represented in the palette "Shop Gers".

Already artists, his contemporaries knew it well. After the death of Watteau, they are plagued Gers accusations that the masterpiece of such force must not "work a sign". The painting hung outside a little longer, Gersen was forced to give in and remove the picture to avoid being spoiled by the bad weather. Now "Shop Gers" is stored in the Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin.

Author: Anna Yesterday
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