Antoine Watteau's 'The Music Lesson' (c. 1716–1717) is a jewel-like example of the fête galante — the new genre Watteau invented, in which elegantly costumed gentlefolk pursue love, music, and conversation in a pastoral park. A young man tunes his lute beside a watchful lady, her fan closed in her lap, while the dappled, pastel-toned light suffuses the glade with a tender melancholy. Watteau's delicate surface and bittersweet mood made him the artist from whom the entire French Rococo would flow.

Exhibition Venue

Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Nuremberg, Germany