Lancret, Nicolas

Lancret, Nicolas (nēkôlä` läNkrā`), 1690–1743, French rococo painter. He studied in Gillot's studio, together with Watteau whose themes and manner he popularized. His favorite subjects were festivities, genre, and theatrical scenes, of which he painted a vast number in a pleasing, though somewhat stilted, style. Examples are in the Louvre (e.g., The Music Lesson, 1743) and in the National Gallery, London.

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Lancret, Nicolas 

Born Jan. 22, 1690, in Paris; died there Sept. 14, 1743. French rococo painter.

Lancret was strongly influenced by A. Watteau. In 1719 he was received into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as a master of fêtes galantes. Lancret also painted landscapes, theater and genre scenes, and portraits. His works include The Dancer Camargot (c. 1730, Hermitage, Leningrad), Concert in the Park (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), and The Music Lesson (Louvre, Paris). Lancret’s paintings are noted for a refined, somewhat pale palette, a decorative, soft painterly manner, and an occasionally superficial treatment of the subject matter (particularly apparent when compared with the works of A. Watteau).

REFERENCE

Wildenstein, G. Lancret: Biographie et catalogue critique. Paris, 1924.