Pierre-Antoine Quillard

1700 – 1733

French painter, draughtsman and engraver, active in Portugal. He received, reportedly from the age of 11, an annual pension from the Abbé de Fleury, tutor to Louis XV. He may already have started work by this time in the Paris studio of Watteau, copying his master's drawings and perhaps also painting portions of his canvases. Given Watteau's temperamental instability, it seems unlikely that he stayed there long. Quillard produced a fair number of fêtes galantes in the style of Watteau, ranging from the lyricism of such paintings as the Four Seasons (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) to an unusual pre-Romantic style with surging figures and dramatically twisted trees, as in Dance among the Ruins (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). He failed twice at the Prix de Rome, in 1723 against Carle van Loo and in 1724 against Boucher. Disappointed by his failures, he moved to Portugal where he became a Court Painter. There, his paintings in the style of Watteau were highly sought after. His later works suggest the influence of François Lemoyne and Nicolas Lancret. He died young at 33.

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