Louis Joseph Watteau
1731–1798 · French painter active in Lille
Louis Joseph Watteau (born in Valenciennes in 1731, died in Lille in 1798) was a French painter who worked mainly in Lille, where he was known as the Watteau of Lille, a title later also given to his son. His lasting importance lies less in a distinctive style than in his role in safeguarding the region's artistic heritage.
He was the son of Noël Joseph Watteau, nephew of the famous Antoine Watteau, the painter of fêtes galantes, and father of the painter François Watteau, so he belonged to a family of artists. He is associated with the painter Jacques Dumont le Romain as his teacher, and among his pupils was Jean Baptiste Joseph Wicar. His surviving works include La Jolie colombe, an oil on wood in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Valenciennes, and several paintings with aerostatic and war themes in the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse in Lille, such as La 14ème expérience aérostatique de M. Blanchard, Le Bombardement de Lille and Le retour des Aéronautes Blanchard et Lépinard.
His most notable contribution was producing the first inventory of paintings confiscated by the state during the French Revolution. That work laid the groundwork for what became the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille, opened in 1803.
Works (2)
Small oil on canvas dated 1793 by Louis Joseph Watteau. The scene brings together ruins, a house, a town and a soldier with a sabre, alongside everyday objects such as a clay pot, ceramics, shaving tools and some heating equipment. Without further documentation, its subject and commission cannot be pinned down, so any reading should stay close to what the picture shows.
Oil on canvas by Louis Joseph Watteau, dated 1756. Its horizontal format, about 170 by 102.5 centimetres, suggests a broad scene. The available information does not establish the subject, the commission or the work's later history, so the museum's catalogue is the best place to check its meaning before drawing firm conclusions.
Where to see the work
Teachers and pupils
Studied with
- Jacques Dumont le Romain 1701–1781
Pupils
- Jean-Baptiste Wicar 1762–1834
- François-Louis-Joseph Watteau 1758–1823