Monument to Watteau at The Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris

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Jean-Antoine Watteau (October 10, 1684 – died July 18, 1721), better known as Antoine Watteau, was a French painter whose brief career sparked the revival of interest in color and movement, as seen in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens. He revitalized the declining Baroque style, shifting it to the less severe, more naturalistic, and less formally classical Rococo. Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of fêtes galantes, scenes of idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. His best-known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet. He was very well known for his studies on realistic perspective in landscapes to challenge the illusion of 3D space on a canvas.