Although Watteau indicated the direction that French art was to follow
in a century when it had to cater no longer for the stateapartment but
for the boudoir, he left no follower worthy to carry on his tradition.
Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743), who had studied under Dulin and Gillot,
based his style upon Watteau, whom he almost rivalled as a draughtsman.
But he was an inferior colourist, and wholly lacking in poetic
inspiration. One has only to compare his _Actors of the Italian Comedy_
(No. 470) with Watteau’s _Gilles_ (No. 983), or his _Music Lesson_ (No.
468) and _Innocence_ (No. 469) with their prototypes created by that
master, to realise the inferiority of these thin, vulgarised versions
of Watteau subjects.
Jean Baptiste Pater (1695-1736), who, like Watteau, was born at
Valenciennes, became a pupil of his fellow-townsman in Paris, and
benefited considerably by his guidance. Although inferior as a
draughtsman to Lancret, whom he did not rival either in originality, he
far surpassed him as a colourist. With Lancret, colour was generally
an afterthought; with Pater, it entered into the primary conception
of the picture. His Academy diploma piece, the _Fête Champêtre_ (No.
689), is painted in the Watteau manner with true pictorial feeling,
even if it lacks the master’s precious, jewel-like quality of pigment.
The _Fête Champêtre_ (No. 203), by Bonaventure Debar (1700-1729), holds
promise of a considerable talent in a similar direction, cut short by a
premature death.