Fête Champêtre

c. 1730

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater

Artist, French, 1695 - 1736

Six women, four men, two children, and a dog sit or stand in a loose line close to us in a misty forest setting in this horizontal landscape painting. Painted in muted and hazy tones of mossy green and earthy brown, a copse of trees takes up the left two-thirds of the composition. A fountain or sculpture about twice the height of the people nestles in the copse. On it a mostly nude woman and child sit next to an object, perhaps a fish or urn, on an arched structure lined with sweeping, curving sides. The people all have pale skin, rosy cheeks, blond or brown hair, and delicate features. The men are clean-shaven, and the women have bow-shaped mouths. The men wear suits and capes and the women long dresses with voluminous skirts in shades of copper brown, shell or dark pink, twilight blue, or parchment white. A man and woman sit together in the lower left corner of the painting, and the woman looks out at us and smiles. Slightly farther back, a man places a crown of flowers on a seated woman, who looks at a companion sitting beside her with flowers held in the apron across her lap. A man and woman embrace to the right of this trio. Next, a woman partially opens a fan and looks down at the man next to her, who kneels and leans forward onto a rock. Two children wearing long garments play with a spindly-legged, shorthaired dog in front of this group, and another couple stands in the lower right corner. That woman wears a black gown, holds a closed fan, and looks off to our left. The man behind her, wearing a red floppy cap and cape over a tawny-brown suit with a wide, lacy collar, looks over her shoulder. The grassy clearing stretches back along the right third of the composition and leads to at least nine more people sitting and standing in the distance. Another copse of trees and far-distant mountains are painted with blended strokes, giving the scene a soft appearance. A few pink-streaked clouds are over the horizon, and smoky blue and white clouds stretch across the lapis-blue sky.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 74.5 x 92.5 cm (29 5/16 x 36 7/16 in.)
    framed: 98.1 x 117.5 x 11.4 cm (38 5/8 x 46 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1946.7.19

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Baronin Hannah Matilde von Rothschild [1832-1924, wife of Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild], Grünberg and Frankfurt am Main; purchased 1930 by (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London);[1] sold 1946 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1946 to NGA.
[1] During the preparation of the NGA systematic catalogue of its French paintings of the 15th through the 18th century, Joseph Baillio of Wildenstein & Co. kindly provided the year that the company acquired the painting from the Baronin von Rothschild.
[2] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/768.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1932

  • Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 257 as Conversation Galante.

1939

  • The Great Tradition of French Painting, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1939, no. 14 as Conversation Galante.

1946

  • Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 883.

1983

  • The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the 18th Century, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1983, no. 44.

2003

  • The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Altes Museum, Berlin, 2003-2004, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).

2011

  • Shared Treasures: The Legacy of Samuel Kress, Allentown Art Museum, 2011-2012, no catalogue.

2022

  • Renoir: Rococo Revival, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt am Main, 2022, no. 5, repro.

Bibliography

1946

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1946: 57, repro.

1948

  • Wildenstein and Company. French XVIII Century Paintings. New York, 1948: 4.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 120, color repro.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 351, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 180, repro. pl. 170-171.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 99.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 88, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 260, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 306-307, figs. 271, 274, color repro. (detail).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 330, no. 441, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 300, repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 78, 362-364, color repro.

Inscriptions

On lining fabric: circular stamps, three times in blue ink, "DOUANES FRANCAISES/ A.T./ PARIS/ SATIONBLLR"; once, in purple ink, "RECETTE PARTICIP. DE L'EST PARIS; once in purple ink, "DOUANES-EXPOSITIONS/ PARIS*". On stretcher: small circular paper label, "DOUANES-EXPOSITIONS/ PARIS"; "36"; "iv"; "REP 160"; "11m 6D"; "19".

Wikidata ID

Q20177840

You may be interested in

Loading Results