Dancers in a Pavilion (1720s): Art, History and Details

Dancers in a Pavilion (1720s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Baptiste Pater (French, 1695–1736).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Jean-Baptiste Pater was the sole student of the early 18th-century artist Antoine Watteau (1684–1721). Upon Watteau's death, Pater finished some of his teacher's compositions and copied them for reproduction. Due to this association, Pater was in the position to capitalize on the popularity of the fête galante genre invented by Watteau. This genre was based on the fêtes held by the aristocracy to escape the tedium of life at the French court, and depict the same amusements: conversation, music, dance, and the pursuit of love. Dancers in a Pavilion is a pastiche of several works by Watteau. The couple in this painting is most likely performing the minuet, which was considered the most flirtatious of dances.

Object facts

• Title: Dancers in a Pavilion
• Date: 1720s
• Creator attribution: Jean-Baptiste Pater (French, 1695–1736)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 79.5 x 70 x 10.5 cm (31 5/16 x 27 9/16 x 4 1/8 in.); Unframed: 55.3 x 47 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/2 in.)
• Collection: P - French 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1938.392

Collection credit

Gift of Commodore Louis D. Beaumont

Further reading listed by the museum

• Oesterreich, Matthieu. Déscription de tout l'intérieur des deux palais de Sans-Souci, de ceux de Potsdam, et de Charlottenbourg. 1773.
• Ad. Braun & Cie. Ausstellung von Gemälden älterer Meister im Berliner Privat-Besitz ... in der Königl. Akademie der Künste in Berlin ... 1883. [Dornach i. Els.]: [A. Braun & Cie], 1883.
• Seidel, Paul. Französische kunstwerke des XVIII jahrhunderts im besitze seiner majestät des deutschen kaisers und königs von Preussen. 1900.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.