Art Captions

Author notes

0046. Iris (The Dance)

CornTown

on Feb. 25, 2010

By. Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)
Circa. 1719
French Rococo

In order to find the dates of some works, art historians need to be detectives. Though this painting is French Rococo and comes from a French artist, it was in fact painted by Watteau during 1719 when the artist was living in Britain. We can tell this from a few factors in the painting. The first is the dress which the girl wears. The girl's fashion was a style that became popular in England during 1718. This style of dress did not reach France until several years later than the painting's date of 1719. Another factor is the Prussian blue color used in the sky (Not visible in this photo of the painting). Much like the dress, the particular shade of Prussian blue used in the sky had not been invented in France, but was available to artists in England during the time.