Gilles

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.

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.

late 1719 – summer 1720

To London, to see Dr Richard Mead

Watteau's health is failing, and he goes to England at the invitation of Philippe Mercier, an admirer and imitator, hoping to overcome tuberculosis with the help of the well-known physician Richard Mead. The treatment brings no noticeable result and the London climate only aggravates his condition; he returns to Paris in summer 1720, gravely ill.

spring 1721

Moves to Nogent-sur-Marne

In spring Watteau's condition worsens; he leaves Gersaint's house but soon asks for help again, since he finds it hard to breathe in Paris. His friend the Abbé Pierre-Maurice Haranger asks Philippe Le Fèvre, the steward of the king's minor entertainments, to make available an empty house with a garden on the edge of Nogent-sur-Marne, far from the stuffiness and bustle of the capital.

18 luglio 1721

Died