Jean-Antoine Watteau

Created the fête galante — aristocrats in parkland, dressed for a theatre that has already ended — in the years around the Regency. The mood is not celebration but something closer to melancholy, which is why he outlasted the Rococo label. He died of tuberculosis at thirty-six.

• Lived: 1684 CE – 1721 CE
• Nationality: french
• Roles: painter