A masterpiece of 18th century French painting, this work by the French Rococo painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, which is also known asThe Embarkation for Cythera or Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera, exists in three variants. The first, somewhat stilted version is dated 1710 and hangs in the Stadel institute in Frankfurt. Seven years later Watteau produced a second version, which he submitted as his presentation piece to the Fine Arts Academy in Paris. This Academy version now hangs in the Louvre. A third version, now in the Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, was executed in 1718-19 for a private client Jean de Jullienne (it was later acquired by King Frederick II of Prussia), and is a slight variation upon the Louvre picture. The Pilgrimage to Cythera is neither a genre painting nor a landscape painting, but a new type of picture known as La fete galante (a sort of allegory of courtship and falling in love). Influenced by the VenetianGiorgione (1477-1510) and the Flemish master Rubens (1577-1640), Watteau was regarded as one of the greatest Rococo artists, and this painting - which began life as an illustration of Florent Carton Dancourt's minor play The Three Cousins - was his finest work and one of the greatest genre paintings of the 18th century.
