Los pastores

Watteau painted this around 1717, just after the death of Louis XIV had loosened the stiff grandeur of the old court and Paris slipped into the lighter, more pleasure-minded mood of the Regency. It shows exactly that mood, well-dressed city people out in the country pretending to be shepherds, one couple dancing a minuet to a piper while others whisper and push a swing. Watteau had just been admitted to the Academy for inventing this kind of scene, the fete galante, a category made up to fit him. Off at the far right, half hidden in the bushes, he tucked in a genuine shepherd with real sheep, quietly measuring the play-acting against the thing itself.