A temporary export bar has been placed on Le Rêve de L’Artiste, a painting by influential 18th century French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.
The work, valued at £6,075,000 (plus VAT of £215,020), is at risk of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found to save the work for the nation.
Watteau was one of the most original and influential French painters of his era. He was a leading figure in the development of the Rococo style and inventor of a type of painting known as the Fête Galante, often small cabinet pictures, exploring the psychology of love, usually within a landscape setting.
His popularity in Britain amongst his contemporaries is evidenced through Le Rêve de L’Artiste being bought in 1736 by the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, Sir Robert Walpole. The painting was hung in Lady Walpole’s dressing room in 10 Downing Street for the remaining years of his administration.
Le Rêve de L’Artiste is an ambitious and complex picture featuring two dozen characters in a surreal, structured environment depicting some of the artist’s own dreams. The painting is unlike much of Watteau’s other work which largely presents natural landscapes as idyllic and untamed.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
ArtDependence Magazine is an international magazine covering all spheres of contemporary art, as well as modern and classical art.
ArtDependence features the latest art news, highlighting interviews with today’s most influential artists, galleries, curators, collectors, fair directors and individuals at the axis of the arts.
The magazine also covers series of articles and reviews on critical art events, new publications and other foremost happenings in the art world.
If you would like to submit events or editorial content to ArtDependence Magazine, please feel free to reach the magazine via the contact page.
