Claude-Henri Watelet

Claude -Henri Watelet ( born August 28, 1718, Paris, † January 12, 1786 ) was a wealthy French Fermier Général, graphic artists, art collectors, encyclopedist, author and Horticulture Learner.

Life and work

Watelet was in Paris in the rue Montorgueil, the son of Nicolas Robert Watelet (1682-1740) and his wife Nicole Elisabeth de Beaufor (1697-1725) was born. The couple had two more sons Gaspard Henri Watelet (1717-1721) and Jean Nicolas de Watelet Valogny ( 1723-1775 ).

Original came his family from the Ardennes. His father was a fermier général. Watelet attended the Collège d' Harcourt. At the age of nineteen, a trip to Italy followed. There in Rome, he attended the Académie de France à Rome and drew his first sketches and made ​​friends with Jean -Baptiste Marie Pierre ( 1714-1789 ). Back in France it the administrative function of a -general of the district of Orléans, receveur général des finances de la généralité d' Orléans was passed. This position gave him a good income and so allowed his passion for the arts to indulge. So he learned to draw, various forms of etching so especially the Ätzradieren paint, emboss, etc.. Since 1747 was as Honoraire - associé libre member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. His concert tours have taken him not only to Italy but also to Holland.

He was acquainted with Mme de Pompadour and attended the salons of Mme de Tencin and Mmm Geoffrin.

Among his friends was one of Jean -François Marmontel, Jacques Delille and Salomon Gessner. He also wrote several articles in the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d' Alembert -Baptiste. Mainly there were articles about drawing, painting and printmaking.

But even plays were written by him, which were only two listed. In 1760 he created a didactic poem, L'Art de peindre what the occasion was, that the French Academy elected him. He took over the seat of Jean -Baptiste de Mirabaud .. on November 29, 1760

In his Essai sur les Jardins (1774 ) processed Watelet the ideas of the Physiocrats and created a bucolic vision of France, which was able to produce could Returning by a simple agricultural economy on the floor of an idealized family- owned farm. He also explained a significant attraction to the philosophy of Jean -Jacques Rousseau and entirely in his diction, he thought that the man would lose the shackles in the garden, which would make him the slave of his business. But the influences of Thomas Whately and William Chambers are detectable .. In his published Essai sur le jardins he called three characteristics to each garden should be based: the picturesque, the poetic and the romantic. The gardener will create paths that down and herwinden, he will leave space between the garden and the viewer or targeted both bring them closer to each other, depending on the intention of its draft. He will also ensure that the viewer rest and relaxation found where his work area shows its most beautiful, its picturesque side.

The Essai sur les jardins among his major works and describes the garden Moulin Joly. This facility situated on the banks of the Seine in the amount of Colombes up to Argenteuil, Watelet acquired in 1750 and built the gardens around on his terms between 1754-1772. It consisted of three islands, with a rustic house, a cave, shelters for animals, a Chinese bridge, a Dutch bridge, a floating bridge and a water mill, a dairy and a garden, which should preserve the natural beauty. Such a garden concept but should also bring stables, included granaries, dairies and apiaries and the benefits of nature to unfold. filled with effortless gratifications Nevertheless, for Watelet however, meant the imitation of nature always subject them to the arts. He was among the first " scenic gardens " and was influenced by Chinoiserie but also of Anglo-Saxon horticultural styles. His artist friends François Boucher and Hubert Robert were one of his regular guests.

A few years later, in February 1746 Watelet entered into an intimate relationship with the Marguerite Le Comte ( 1717-1800 ), a young married woman. Her husband, with whom she had been married since September 9, 1735, the prosecutor, procureur du Grand Châtelet Jacques Roger Lecomte was ( 1702-1789 ). In the years 1763-1786 a second stay in Italy followed along with his mistress, then in Rome, she lived in the Villa Medici.

Works (selection)

About the Arts

• Encyclopédie, " Gravure", vol. 7 (1757 )
• Contributions to Vies of the premiers peintres du roi, depuis M. Le Brun jusqu'à présent (1752 ).
• L'Art de peindre, poème, avec des Reflexions sur les parties de la peinture différentes (1760 ). (online)
• Essai sur les jardins (1774 ). RRprinted ( Gérard Monfort ), 2004. (Online)
• Dictionnaire des beaux -arts ( 2 volumes, 1788-91 ). Watelet work was, among others, Pierre -Charles Lévesque completed online and onlie. Facsimile Edition: LF Prault, Paris / Minkoff, Geneva, 1972.
• Rymbranesques ou Essais de gravures (1783 ).

Theater

• La Maison de campagne à la mode, ou La comédie d'après nature, comédie en deux actes, en prose, composée en 1777 (1784) (online)
• Recueil de quelques ouvrages de M. Watelet, de l' Academie Francoise et de celle de peinture (1784 ). Silvie
• Zénéïde, en 1 acte, en prose, composée en janvier 1743
• Les Statuaires d' Athènes, comédie en 3 actes en prose, composée en 1766 ** Les Veuves, ou la dame d' ephese, comédie en 3 actes, en vers
• Milon, intermède pastoral en 1 acte en vers
• Deucalion et Pyrrha, opéra à grand spectacle, en 4 actes en vers, composé en 1765, EXECUTE au concert des écoles gratuites de dessin, le 29 avril 1772 dans la salle de la foire du Wauxhall St- Germain. (online).
• Delie, drame lyrique en 1 acte en vers, composé en 1765
• Phaon, drame lyrique en 2 actes en vers Mele d' Ariettes, représenté devant Leurs Majestés à Choisy en septembre 1778.