Jean-Antoine Watteau was born in Valenciennes, the son of a master roofer. He first studied with a painter in his hometown, then in 1702 left for Paris. There he painted pictures of saints for a picture dealer before entering the atelier of Claude Gillot. In 1708 and 1709 he worked with Claude Audran III, a highly regarded designer of decorations. In 1709 Watteau is documented as a student at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. After a brief stay in Valenciennes, in 1712 Watteau submitted several paintings to the Grand Prix de Rome. He was awarded only second prize, but was made an associate of the academy. In 1713 he came to know the banker, collector, and art patron Pierre Crozat, with whom he lived for a time and whose collection he studied. In 1717, after several warnings, Watteau finally delivered his diploma picture to the academy, The Embarkment for Cythera. With it he was named peintre de fêtes galantes. Watteau’s landscapes with scenes of aristocratic amusements became highly sought after. His pupils Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater produced endless variations on Watteau’s motifs over the following decades. From 1719 to 1720 Watteau sojourned in England for nearly a year. Returning to Paris in the summer, he painted for his friend Edme-François Gersaint the famous signboard depicting the interior of an art dealer’s shop. Suffering from tuberculosis, Watteau withdrew in the spring of 1721 to Nogent-sur-Marne, where he died on July 18.