September and October (part of a set illustrating the months of the year)
second quarter 18th century
Medium
Oil on canvas; wood frame, painted yellow and gilded
Dimensions
Overall: 119 × 38 1/2 in. (302.3 × 97.8 cm)
Classification
Paintings-Decorative|Paintings|Woodwork
Culture
French
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1922
Accession Number
22.225.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, *September and October* by Antoine Watteau captures the essence of the autumn harvest in exquisite detail. Created in the second quarter of 18th century, oil-on-canvas panel is part of a larger set illustrating the months of the year a popular decorative theme in French Rococo interiors. Watteau, a master of elegant, dreamlike scenes known as *fêtes galantes*, infuses these tall, narrow works (over 9 feet high!) with lively vignettes of men and women amid trees and ladders, gathering ripe fruit—a joyful nod to ...
About the Artist
Antoine Watteau · 1684–1721
Jean-Antoine Watteau, born in 1684 in Valenciennes to a modest family—his father a roofer named Jean-Philippe Watteau—was the second of four sons who displayed an early passion for art. After initial apprenticeship under local painter Jacques-Albert Gérin, he moved to Paris around 1702, working in workshops copying Flemish and Dutch genre scenes. By 1705, he entered the studio of Claude Gillot, ab...