Detail of The Ogling Man by Watteau in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 2018

The Gazer (Le Lorgneur) (Primary Title)

Jean-Antoine Watteau, French, 1684 - 1721 (Artist)

Date: ca. 1716

Culture: French

Category: Paintings

Medium: oil on panel

Collection: European Art

Dimensions: Unframed: 12 3/4 × 9 7/16 in. (32.39 × 23.97 cm)
Framed: 19 3/4 × 16 1/4 in. (50.17 × 41.28 cm)

Object Number: 55.22

This type of painting, invented by Watteau, is called a fête galante (courtship party) and usually depicts figures in fancy dress making erotic overtures to one another (here quite literally). The two musicians vie for the attention of a demure woman, their instruments thinly veiling their ultimate intentions. Watteau’s dream world, at once fantasy and deliberately low comedy, was inspired above all by Venetian 16th and Dutch 17th century painting.

Text from: www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-8053924