Antoine Watteau's 'Pilgrimage To Cythera'

Most Valuable Artists Award

1715-1750 Antoine Watteau Watteau was revolutionary for his time because of the breakthrough of having his Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717, accepted as his entry into The French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and only by creating a subcategory called fete gallant, meaning amorous festival, to accept Watteau as a student. His work was recognized by the Rubenistes as having the most important elements, use of coloristic balance and style of subjects, of early Rococo style depicting the amusements of outdoor activities that the high society French aristocrats enjoyed. Watteau's figures were elegantly posed, relaxed, and full of softness with relation to the lush landscape; it all comes together in a dream-like

Delacroix often painted contemporary and historical events in a style that characterized political and exotic scenes passionately. After Delacroix traveled to Morocco and developed an interest in Orientalism was enchanted by exotic people, their culture, and the colorful clothing they wore shaped his use of pure hues. Delacroix's works are passionate and reflected his belief that beauty exists in nature and he looked to recreate those values that nature held such as no straight lines existed and very rarely could you find a pure hue. Delacroix in a way anticipated the Impressionists use of color theory and he understood the power that complementary colors bring to a composition.

1850-1875 Edouard Manet Manet was an original artist that shocked his contemporaries with two scandalous paintings in 1863, Luncheon on the Grass, and Olympia. Manet's style was somewhere between Realism principles and the beginning development of Impressionism. Manet's Luncheon on the Grass characterizes to Parisian men who are seated on the ground with a picnic spread out to the side. Keeping them company is a nude woman who is unashamed and staring at the viewer as if to suggest there is nothing interesting