Biography
Nicolas Lancret was a French painter and one of the leading artists of the Rococo period. He was born in Paris in 1690 and initially trained as a history painter before studying under Claude Gillot, who had also taught Antoine Watteau.
Strongly influenced by Watteau, Lancret became especially known for fêtes galantes: elegant scenes of fashionable men and women dancing, conversing, playing music or enjoying themselves in gardens and country settings. His paintings captured the refined pleasures and social life of early eighteenth-century France.
Lancret was admitted to the French Royal Academy in 1719 and later received royal commissions. After the deaths of Watteau and Gillot, he became one of the most successful painters of this type of elegant genre scene. Among his best-known works are The Four Ages of Man and numerous scenes of dances, theatrical performances and outdoor festivities.
He died in Paris on 14 September 1743.
