The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting

History of 18th-Century France: Highlights*

The 18th century was a period of vast political, economic, and social change in France, as the moral principles of the Enlightenment took hold and radically transformed the structures of society. Mirroring the contemporary realities of French culture, French genre paintings were part of the great ideological shift in thought and art, away from the religious and monarchical values of 17th-century French society towards the ideals of the Enlightenment.

1702 The Hapsburg King of Spain, Charles II, died. Fearing France’s expansion into Spain, the British declared war on France, marking the beginning of The War of Spanish Succession.

1713 The War of Spanish Succession ended with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht and France was forced to cede to Great Britain the Hudson Bay territory, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.

1715 When Louis XV succeeded Louis XIV as King of France, it was the first time in 72 years that the French public would greet a new king. The Sun King Louis XIV died two days later, marking the end of one of the most significant reigns in French history. During his reign, Louis XIV had made France one of the most preeminent powers in Europe and much of French social and artistic life was dominated by his imperial aspirations. From 1715 until the new boy king came of age in 1723, a Regency (Régence) was instituted, with Philippe, Duc d’Orléans serving as Regent. He lived at the Palais-Royal in Paris, and consequently the center of French society shifted from the old royal palace of Versailles to the city. The pomp and ceremony of Versailles was abandoned, to be replaced by the refined social life which now flourished in the more intimate and private town houses of Paris. Throughout the reign of Louis XV, political and private life became much more relaxed and this transition was mirrored by new styles in art. French painting became more concerned with the intimate, decorative, and even the erotic, than with the nation building ideal of 17th-century France.

1717 Writer and philosopher Francois Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was imprisoned in the Bastille for 11 months for writing a satire of the French government. During his time in prison, he wrote "Oedipe", his first theatrical success, using the pen name "Voltaire." A voice of reason and an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution, Voltaire produced hundreds of books, plays, and other publications. In many ways, he was responsible for bringing the ideas of the Enlightenment to France, ideas that would eventually change the structure of French society itself.

1726 Voltaire is exiled to England until 1729 after insulting the Chevalier De Rohan, a powerful young nobleman. While in England, Voltaire became interested in England's constitutional monarchy and its religious tolerance. He was introduced to the philosophy of John Locke and was deeply influenced by the philosophical rationalism of the time. His experiences in England would have a profound impact of his later writings.

1737 A major event in the art world was the institution of annual (sometimes biennial) public art exhibitions in the Salon of the royal palace of the Louvre. These exhibitions were organized by the Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and introduced contemporary art to a much wider general public. The Salon Exhibitions stimulated a new art market, and encouraged artists to consider the responses of their new audience. It also gave rise to a new type of journalism, art criticism, which engendered a lively debate about the role of art in society.

1745 Voltaire was appointed historiographer to the King, and the Marquise de Pompadour became the mistress of Louis XV. Actively involved in the direction and support of French art and letters, she gave commissions to Boucher, Greuze, Vernet, Fragonard, and other artists.

1751 The first volume of the Encyclopédie is published, with the philosophers Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert as its principal editors. This multi-volume encyclopedia of practical and scientific information, published over many years until 1776, was the mouthpiece of the Enlightenment. It contained the latest philosophical ideals, many of them politically and socially radical for the time.

1755 Marie-Antoinette was born in Vienna. The youngest daughter of Francis Stephen I and Maria Theresa, Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, she was raised to believe that she would be the next Queen of France.

1759 Voltaire moved to the French-Swiss border; visits from writers and philosophers made his estate one of the intellectual capitals of Europe.

1769 Louis XV requested the hand of the Marie-Antoinette for his nephew and heir, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste; they wed in 1770.

1774 King Louis XV died and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette acceded to the French throne. Throughout the reign of Louis XV, France had fallen into financial ruin and the couple was blamed for much of the economic and political crisis. As the King and Queen of France, they lived extravagant lifestyles and stories of their excess circulated within the public.

1778 France entered the War of the American Revolution on the side of the American colonies, with financially devastating consequences for France.

1783 The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the American war. France emerged with few concrete gains and a debt situation approaching catastrophe. Involvement with America had also "infected" many French with the revolutionary spirit.

1783 Voltaire returned to Paris at age 83 - a return that was celebrated by the Parisian public. The excitement of the trip proved difficult for Voltaire’s health and he died in Paris. Because of his criticism of the Church, Voltaire was denied burial in church ground. His body was removed from Paris and buried at an abbey in Champagne.

1788 King Louis XVI began to recognize the need for fundamental change as France approached near financial devastation. He forced the nobility and clergy to pay taxes and ordered the election of an Estates General, the first since 1614. The shift in French politics structure consequently ended absolutism in France.

1789 The financial crisis in France escalated to catastrophic proportions with nearly half of the French population unemployed. In May, the French Revolution began with the meeting of the Estates General. On July 14, the Bastille was stormed, beginning the violence that would last throughout the next few years. In October, The Royal Family and the French court were removed from Versailles to Paris. King Louis XVI recognizes the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and a constitutional government instituted limited control of the monarchy. Across France, peasants rose and seized the land as they heard accounts of the events that had transpired in Paris. Thousands of nobles fled into exile and the revolution began a period that became known as “The Great Fear.”

1791 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were caught attempting to flee Paris for Varennes in June.

1792 France declared war on Austria in May as Austrian forces attempted to overthrow Revolutionary forces and regain control of France. Louis XVI was placed on trial for conspiring with the advancing allied armies of Austria, Holland, Prussia, and Sardinia. One of the prosecutors was the King’s distant cousin, formerly Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who had joined the revolution and renamed himself Louis-Philippe Egalité. The trial was a foregone conclusion, and Louis was condemned to death.

1793 On January 21, Louis XVI was executed. On the October 16, Queen Marie Antoinette died under the guillotine. Throughout the Reign of Terror that began after her death, thousands of the French nobility were killed until the fall of Robespierre on July 27, 1794.

1804 Napoleon Buonaparte became Emperor in May, ending the French Revolution.

* Developed from material provided by the National Gallery of Canada.

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