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Currently adding more portraits!...Rococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design, which also spread in other parts of Europe and England.The word Rococo is seen as a combination of the French rocaille, or shell, and the Italian barocco, or Baroque style. Due to Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts, some critics used the term to derogatively imply that the style was frivolous or merely fashion; interestingly, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning "old-fashioned". However, since the mid 19th century, the term has been accepted by art historians. Rococo is now widely recognized as a major period in the development of European art.Rococo developed first in the decorative arts and interior design. Louis XV's succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the old king's reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves and natural patterns. These elements are obvious in the architectural designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this artistic change became well established, first in the royal palace and then throughout French high society. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is often seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XV's regime.The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France. The style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture. Rococo still maintained the Baroque taste for complex forms and intricate patterns, but by this point, it had begun to integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, including a taste for Oriental designs and asymmetric compositions.The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality and degeneracy of the art. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order and seriousness of Neoclassical artists like Jacques Louis David. In Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke ("pigtail and periwig"), and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil.The final curtain for the Rococo style finally came down symbolically with the fall of the Ancien Régime and the execution of Louis XVI in 1793. Rococo remained popular in the provinces and in Italy, until the second phase of neoclassicism, "Empire style," arrived with Napoleonic governments and swept Rococo away into the sands of time.There was a renewed interest in the Rococo style between 1820 and 1870. The English were among the first to revive the "Louis XIV style" as it was miscalled at first, and paid inflated prices for second-hand Rococo luxury goods that could scarcely be sold in Paris. But prominent artists like Delacroix and patrons like Empress Eugénie also rediscovered the value of grace and playfulness in art and design.During the Baroque and Rococo period, the formal portrait became extremely important as a social barometer. In a society dominated increasingly by secular leaders in powerful courts, images of opulently attired figures were both symbols of temporal power and wealth, and a means to affirm the authority of certain individuals in noble and royal lineages.Rococo artists, who were particularly interested in rich and intricate ornamentation, excelled at the refined portrait. Their attention to the details of dress and texture increased the efficacy of portraits as testaments to worldly wealth and power.Portrait of Louis XIV, by Hyacinthe Rigaud, c.1701/02Portrait of Louis XV, by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1730Portrait of Louis XVI, by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, 1777Portrait of the Marquise d'Antin, by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1738The White Hat, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1780Portrait of Princesse de Rohan, by Jean-Marc Nattier, undatedPortrait of Charles Alexandre de Calonne, by Élisabeth Vigée-Le BrunSelf-portrait in a Straw Hat, by Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, 1782Self-portrait with two pupils, by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1785, the two pupils are Marie Capet and Carreaux de Rosemond.Portrait of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, by François-Hubert DrouaisThalia, Muse of Comedy, by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1739Portrait medalion of Louis XVI, by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, 1775
