Lancret was one of the chief followers of Watteau in early 18th-century France, producing fêtes galantes and conversation pieces in a style similar to that of Watteau. Like his English contemporary, Hogarth, Lancret profited from prints made after his paintings. Unlike Hogarth, whose work looked at the underside of life, Lancret painted aristocrats engaged in playful pursuits.
Lancret was the son of a coachman; he was trained by Pierre Dulin, a history painter, and then by Claude Gillot, and was received into the Academy in 1719 with a Watteauesque 'Conversation Galante'. After the deaths of Watteau (1721) and Gillot (1722) he received considerable acclaim for his fêtes galantes. He received his first royal commission in 1725.
Nicolas Lancret
1690 - 1743
Paintings by Nicolas Lancret
(Showing 6 of 9 works)
A wealthy family enjoy coffee beside a fountain. The mother offers a spoon from her cup to her little daughter. The father sits beside them holding the tray while their servant pours coffee from the pot into his cup. The painting is more likely to be a genre scene than a portrait of a particular...
This is the second of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man and represents Adolescence (L'Adolescence).A young lady stands in the centre of the painting in a grand circular room with tall windows. She admires herself in the mirror held up by a young page while her hair is d...
Not on display
This is the first of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man.Ten wealthy children, a baby, a nurse and a governess are outside in a tiled neoclassical loggia. Two of the children are being taught to read by the governess, while the others are playing boisterous games. A boy a...
Not on display
This is the fourth and final painting in Lancret’s series of The Four Ages of Man, entitled Old Age (La Vieillesse). Lancret dispensed with the usual depiction of old people warming themselves indoors before an open fire to take the scene outdoors. A young woman rejects an old man’s advances whil...
Not on display
This is the third of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man and represents Youth (La Jeunesse).Three pairs of lovers embrace one another in a woodland glade. In the foreground, two archers are engaged in a game of ‘pape-guay’, which involves shooting at an imitation bird (us...
Not on display
This is the third in Lancret’s series of paintings The Four Times of Day. A gentleman and three ladies are gathered around a tric-trac table in a woodland glade. Tric-trac was a game similar to backgammon. The gentleman and a lady are playing at the table – she has just thrown the dice from her h...
Not on display
This is the final scene in Lancret’s series of paintings The Four Times of Day. By the silvery light of a spring or summer moon a group of women are bathing together in a woodland pond. One of the women standing in the pond is about to splash another who is lying on the ground, apparently testing...
Not on display
This is the second painting in Lancret’s series The Four Times of Day. A sculpted cherub (Love) sits on top of a sundial, the shadow of which points to the Roman numerals for 12 inscribed into the stone. The man and two women note the moment on the sundial, and one of the ladies holds her pocket...
Not on display
In this, the first of Lancret’s Four Times of Day, a priest attends a young lady as she takes her breakfast and gets dressed. The clock records the time as 9.08 am. The young woman, her breast exposed, has turned away from her dressing table to pour hot water into the priest’s teacup. As the pair...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 9 paintings