Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in Germany
Poetry of the Moment

Poetry of the Moment: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting in the Times of Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard GERMANY BERLIN  •  Gemäldegalerie  •  Ongoing   With about 110 paintings – among them major works of Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard – this show is a major exhibition of French genre painting. ‘Genre painting’ was only defined in the course of the 18th century: it comprised different subjects such as portraits, landscape, still life, interiors, and scenes of daily life. In general, ‘genre painting’ was the collective term for paintings which were not of a historical, religious or mythological nature. In the first half of the 18th century, Watteau and the courtly genre dominated. From the 1730s, however, Chardin put the accent on paintings of silent poetry. At the same time, a tendency towards moralising and sentimentality became apparent, and at the end of the century the harbingers of classicism modified the style of genre painting. Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Web Site Contact: Tel: (49) 30 20 90 55 66 email this item to a friend