Nicolas Lancret, 'The Four Ages of Man: Youth', about 1733-4

Lancret treats the traditional subject of The Four Ages of Man as a series of contemporary genre scenes. The paintings represent Childhood, Adolescence, Youth and Old Age. Lancret certainly knew the series of The Four Ages of Man painted by Jean Raoux for Philippe de Vendôme around 1714–15, and although it has been suggested that Lancret’s series was inspired by it, overall the differences are greater than the similarities.

In Childhood (L'Enfance), a group of wealthy children play boisterous games in an open-air loggia watched by their nurse and governess. Lancret’s Childhood is closely related to that of Raoux – there are similarities in the architectural background, the balustrade on the right, the frieze-like arrangement of the children and the motif of the governess teaching from an open book.

In Adolescence (L’Adolescence), a young woman admires herself in a mirror while her hair is decorated with ribbons and flowers. Such is the young woman’s absorption in her own reflection that she has not noticed that the wealthy nobleman beside her has turned to talk to a young woman coquettishly adjusting her stocking.

The third painting in the series is less conventional. Instead of showing his third age as a time of maturity and depicting a middle-aged married couple, Lancret paints several pairs of lovers in a woody glade and entitles the picture Youth (La Jeunesse). In the foreground, two archers are engaged in a game of pape-guay, in which they shoot at an imitation bird placed on top of a long pole. The two apparently unattached women in the background might be read as the targets for the arrows aimed by the archers, as arrows are associated with Cupid, the god of love.

In Old Age (La Vieillesse), Lancret dispenses 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 while an old woman spins and another sleeps.

Since all of the paintings are influenced by earlier prints it is not possible to determine the order in which Lancret painted them. However, the close connection of Childhood (L’Enfance) with the version by Raoux suggests it was tackled first. It is likely that Lancret worked on the series between 1733 and 1734. Two figures in Lancret’s Dance between a Pavilion and a Fountain of 1733 (Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin), also appear at the far left of his Childhood (L’Enfance).

Lancret had his paintings copied by leading engravers. The Seasons, The Ages of Man, The Times of Day and The Elements were all engraved so he could make as much money as possible from them in printed as well as painted form.

The set was engraved in reverse by Nicolas de Larmessin III and announced in the July 1735 issue of the Mercure de France. Most of the numerous painted copies are also in reverse, showing that they were copied from the prints. A set of large wall tapestries based on Larmessin’s prints was made at the Aubusson tapestry works around 1745–50.