The Embarkation for Cythera

Jean-Antoine Watteau · 1717

The Embarkation for Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau

The story

The Embarkation for Cythera ("L'embarquement pour Cythère") is a painting by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau.

It is also known as Voyage to Cythera and Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera. Watteau submitted this work to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as his reception piece in 1717. The painting is now in the Louvre, Paris. A second version of the work, sometimes called Pilgrimage to Cythera to distinguish it, was painted by Watteau about 1718 or 1719 and is in the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. These elaborated a much simpler depiction painted by Watteau in 1709 or 1710, which is now in Frankfurt.

The painting was featured in the 1980 BBC Two series 100 Great Paintings.

Artist
Jean-Antoine Watteau
Date
1717
Collection
Louvre, Paris, France
Medium
oil paint, canvas
Size
129 × 194 cm

Story adapted from the Wikipedia article and its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Explore paintings by Jean-Antoine Watteau

Explore related paintings

Guess famous paintings in the free daily art puzzle →

Enable JavaScript to play the interactive puzzle. Your progress stays on this device.