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Chapter 1 of 7
Before you hangs the canvas that invented a genre. When Watteau presented it to the Royal Academy in 1717, the academicians coined a name for what they saw: the fête galante. Couples drift across a sun-warmed hillside — pilgrims of love, arriving or already leaving.
Watteau never resolves the question, and that unanswered longing is the soul of the painting.
Where to see it
Paris
Room Watteau · Level 2 · Sully wing
The Hear Art 3D museum guide walks you to it.
Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
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