Six Head Studies

1710s

Meets Edme-François Gersaint

At Sirois's house Watteau meets his son-in-law, the art dealer Edme-François Gersaint, who soon becomes a close friend.

1710s

Tuberculosis sets in

Watteau's fame grows steadily, yet he is as a rule dissatisfied with everything that comes from his brush; at the same time he develops a serious illness, tuberculosis.

1712–1717

Five years instead of two for the reception piece

Watteau takes five years instead of the two allowed to deliver his reception piece for the Academy: several times he asks for extensions and is summoned more than once to explain the delay. The academicians leave the choice of subject to him, although they usually set it themselves — a sign of his high reputation.

1714

Moves into the banker Crozat's mansion

Through Sirois, Watteau finds a patron in the very wealthy banker and collector Pierre Crozat and, at his invitation, moves into Crozat's newly built Paris mansion. There he gains access to the celebrated collection and eagerly copies drawings by the great masters; next door lives the academician Charles de La Fosse, with whom he is on good terms.

c. 1717

Crozat recommends Watteau to Rosalba Carriera

Watteau's fame spreads beyond Paris: the banker Crozat writes to the celebrated portraitist Rosalba Carriera in Venice that among Paris painters he knows no one but Watteau who could produce a work worthy of being shown to her. Crozat's patronage and lucrative commissions help to launch the painter's European reputation.

28 August 1717

Elected to the Academy: a “fête galante”

By 1717 Watteau's “gallant scenes” have had such wide success that an exception is made for his reception piece, “Pilgrimage to Cythera”: in the minutes the words “pilgrimage to Cythera” are struck out and replaced by “fête galante”. Watteau is elected a full member of the Academy; the ceremony is attended by the First Painter to the King, Antoine Coypel, by Claude Gillot and by the Regent, the Duke of Orléans.