Chapter 26: Rococo to Neoclassicism: The 18th Century in Europe and
America
Preview: The 18th century in Europe and America is characterized by three major cultural
developments: the Rococo style, the Enlightenment, and Neoclassicism. Each of these
developments was linked to socio-political change and each generated distinct artistic forms. In
France, the grand palace-based culture of the preceding century shifted to more intimate
gatherings in the townhouses of Paris, which were decorated in the elegant and refined Rococo
style. The Rococo painter Antoine Watteau depicted French high society in light colors and
delicate lines. The Enlightenment was the primary philosophical development of the 18th century,
and the critical thinking it promoted was a driving factor in the French and American Revolutions
late in the century. Enlightenment thinking emphasized scientific empiricism and the doctrine of
progress, and developed in tandem with the Industrial Revolution that transformed the social and
economic landscapes of Europe and America. Also with the Enlightenment came an emphasis on
Humanism that inspired countless travelers to embark on Grand Tours of Italy to rediscover the
art and culture of Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance. Interest in the classical past spurred
excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, which in turn gave rise to Neoclassicism, a movement in
art and architecture that revives classical forms and themes. Jacques-Louis David became the
leading French Neoclassical painter of the age, while in England, Richard Boyle’s Chiswick House
was inspired by Ancient Roman and Renaissance architecture. In the United States, Thomas
Jefferson designed Monticello and the University of Virginia in the Neoclassical style, which he
considered the most appropriate representation of the civic ideals of the new American republic.
Key Figures: Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau, Palladio, Cincinnatus
Key Cultural Terms & Events: Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, French Revolution, Third
Estate, American Revolution, femmes savants, Rococo, rocaille, Philosophe, ancien regime, Grand
Manner portraiture, Grand Tour, Neoclassicism, excavation of Herculaneum & Pompeii (1738 &
1748)
Key Art Terms: hotels, Rococo, tapestry, Poussinistes, Rubénistes, veduta/vedute, exemplum
virtutis
Lecture Notes:
Introductory Notes:
THE 18TH CENTURY IN EUROPE AND AMERICA
Rococo:
Architecture:

Germain Boffrand, Salon de la Princesse, with paintings by Charles-Joseph Natoire and
sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Hotel de Soubise, Paris, France, 1737-1740





o Description & decorative features:
o Function & significance:
François de Cuvilliés, Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, Nymphenburg Palace park, Munich,
Germany, early 18th century
o Description & decorative features:
o Function & significance:
Balthasar Neumann, Interior of the pilgrimage church of Vierzehnheiligen, near Staffelstein,
Germany, 1743-1772
o Description & decorative features:
o Function & significance:
Fischer von Erlach, Karlskirche, Vienna, 1716-1737
o Description & decorative features:
o Function & significance:
Balthasar Neumann, Kaisersaal, Würzburg, 1719-1744
o Description & decorative features:
o Function & significance:
Zimmerman, Wiesenkirche, Füssen, 1745=1754
o Description & decorative features:
o Function & significance:
Painting and Sculpture:






Antoine Watteau, L’Indifferent, ca. 1716
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:
o Significance:
Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythea, 1717
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:
o Significance:
Watteau, Signboard of Gersaint, 1721
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:
o Significance:
François Boucher, Cupid a Captive, 1754
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:
o Significance:
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1766
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:
o Significance:
Giambattista Tiepolo, Apotheosis of the Pisani Family, ceiling painting in the Villa Pisani,
Stra, Italy, 1761-1762
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:

o Significance:
Clodion, Nymph and Satyr Carousing, ca. 1780-1790
o Medium & scale:
o Subject & style:
o Significance:
The Enlightenment:
Philosophy and Science: Names and Notes





Newton & Locke:
Philosophes:
Voltaire:
Rousseau:
Industrial Revolution:

Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery, ca. 1763-1765
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Joseph Wright of Derby, Experiment on a Bird, 1768
o Description:
o Subject & significance:
Abraham Darby III and Thomas F. Pritchard, iron bridge, Coalbrookdale, England, 17761779
o Description:
o Materials & construction technique:
o Significance:


“Natural” Art:




Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Saying Grace, 1740
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Village Bride, 1761
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun , Self-Portrait, 1790
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun , Marie Antoinette, 1787
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:







o Style & significance:
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, 1785
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
William Hogarth, Breakfast Scene, from Marriage á la Mode, ca. 1745
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Thomas Gainsborough, Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1787
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord Heathfield, 1787
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Benjamin West, Death of General Wolf, 1771
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, ca. 1768-1770
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Antonio Canaletto, Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, ca. 1735-1740
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Neoclassicism:

Robert Adam, Etruscan Room, Osterley Park House, Middlesex, England, begun 1761
o Architectural & ornamental features:
o Significance:
Painting:



Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Presenting Her Children as her Treasures, or Mother of the
Gracchi, ca. 1785
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Mengs, Parnassus, 1761
o Description & significance:
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784

o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat, 1793
o Medium & scale:
o Subject:
o Style & significance:
Architecture and Sculpture:









Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Panthéon (Sainte-Geneviéve, looking northeast), Paris, France,
1755-1792
o Description, style & significance:
Walpole, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, 1749-1777
o Description, style & significance:
Richard Boyle and William Kent, Chiswick house, near London, England, begun 1725
o Description, style & significance:
James Stuart, Hagley Park, 1758
o Description, style & significance:
Henry Flitcroft and Henry Hoare, the park at Stourhead, England, 1743-1765
o Description, style & significance:
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1770-1806
o Description, style & significance:
Jefferson, Rotunda and Lawn, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1819-1826
o Description, style & significance:
Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington. 1788-1792
o Material & scale:
o Subject & stylistic features:
o Significance:
Horatio Greenough, George Washington, 1840
o Material & scale:
o Subject & stylistic features:
o Significance:
Concluding notes:
Exercises for Study:
1. Discuss how Neoclassicism and the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii influenced art in
the 18th century.
2. Describe the influence of Enlightenment thinking on the art of the 18th century. Select one
artwork and discuss how it manifests the influence of the Enlightenment.
3. Define the following terms and describe how they figure in artworks of the 18th century:

Grand Tour:

History Painting:

Rousseau and “naturalist” painting:

féte galante
4. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a
guide.
A. François Boucher, Cupid a Captive (Fig. 26-8); Clodion, Nymph and Satyr Carousing (Fig. 26-11)

Medium:

Style:

Subject & theme:

Function & audience:
B. Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures (Fig. 26-24); Elisabeth
Vigée-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette (Fig. 26-15A)

Subjects:

Style:

Function/audience of paintings:
C. Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Panthéon (Fig. 26-27); Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia (Fig.
26-31)

Location:

Architectural features:

Influence of classical architecture:

Function of buildings: