Rococo and the Elegant Portrait

After Louis XIV died in 1715, French nobles moved from the formal halls of Versailles back to their town houses in Paris. They wanted smaller, lighter rooms for conversation, music and cards. A new style grew up there in the 1720s and spread across Europe: the Rococo (about 1720 to 1780). The name comes from the French rocaille, the shell and rock work used in garden grottoes, whose curling forms show up everywhere in its ornament.

Rococo rooms have pale walls, gilded curling frames, mirrors and delicate plaster scrolls; furniture has curved legs. Paintings use pastel colors (rose, sky blue, cream, pale green), soft light and graceful figures at leisure: parties in parks, music and courtship, elegant portraits. The painter Antoine Watteau (1684 to 1721) invented a whole type of picture, the fête galante, showing elegant couples in park settings.

Key idea

Rococo (about 1720 to 1780) is light, elegant and playful: pastel color, small scale, curving ornament and scenes of graceful leisure. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted Queen Marie Antoinette in this elegant spirit.

Why it works

Style follows use. Baroque palaces were built to impress crowds and announce power. Rococo rooms were built for small groups of friends, so the scale shrank, the colors lightened and the mood relaxed. Art moved from public statements to private pleasure.

Looking closely: Marie Antoinette with a Rose

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette with a Rose, 1783. Palace of Versailles.

Describe. The queen of France, in a blue-gray silk gown trimmed with lace, holds out a pink rose. Her powdered hair is piled high and topped with feathers; behind her is a dark, leafy garden. Analyze. The soft, cool blue and silver of the silk shine against the dark ground. Her face is smooth and idealized, the pose easy and graceful; her body turns one way, her head the other. Interpret. It is a royal portrait without throne or crown, showing the queen as gracious and gentle. Vigée Le Brun (1755 to 1842) painted it to replace an earlier 1783 portrait of the queen in a simple muslin dress, which critics thought too informal for a queen.

Rococo (A) against Baroque (B): pastel silk and grace against deep shadow and drama.

Common mistake

People think Rococo is a heavier Baroque. It is lighter: pastel instead of deep color, small rooms instead of great halls, delicate curves instead of massive ones, play instead of grandeur. Check the color and scale first.

Worked example: Baroque or Rococo?

A painting shows a young couple on a swing-seat in a park, in pale pinks and greens, with soft, feathery trees. Which style is it, and why?

Pastel colors and soft light, not deep shadows.
The subject is elegant leisure and courtship, not drama.
The scale and mood are light and playful.

Answer: Rococo.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, after 1782. National Gallery, London.

Vigée Le Brun saw Rubens's Le Chapeau de Paille in Antwerp in 1782 and painted her own version, with herself outdoors in a feathered hat, palette in hand. She was one of the most successful portraitists in Europe and painted the queen many times. After the French Revolution began in 1789, she left France and worked in Italy, Austria and Russia for twelve years.

The Rococo sits between the Baroque and Neoclassicism.

Rococo and the Elegant Portrait

Looking closely: Marie Antoinette with a Rose

Practice

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