The Country Dance

Amid the trees, a group of villagers play music while a couple dances. A toddler copies the lady's motions, entertaining the company. Rather than the usual contemporary association with debauchery, music here alludes to social harmony and order. The musicians glance coyly at the viewer, actors very aware of their spectators. This sort of interaction is one of Watteau's hallmarks.{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Ellen Wardwell|last2=Robinson|first2=Anne|title=Indianapolis Museum of Art: Highlights of the Collection|publisher=Indianapolis Museum of Art|location=Indianapolis|date=2005|isbn=0936260777}}

It is an image of visual extremes: the dark forest background brings the peasants' bright clothing into sharp contrast. The rustic setting and the dancers' formal attire channel both the fête galante and a formal court celebration transplanted to a charming bit of countryside.{{cite book|last=Porter|first=Cecelia Hopkins|title=Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present|year=2012|publisher=University of Illinois|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=9780252037016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Dc-8Z8-zLQC&q=country+dance+Watteau&pg=PA41}}

This is Watteau's earliest known painting, but already he had developed his own style. Painted shortly after he moved from Valenciennes to Paris, Watteau took the merry rustic scenes favored by his Flemish antecedents like Pieter Bruegel and Peter Paul Rubens, but gave them unprecedented grace, nobility, and style. Though painting a standard northern European subject, he drew heavily on Venetian landscapes, particularly in the atmospheric effects. It is, in effect, a declaration in favor of the Rococo movement with which Watteau would become so heavily associated.{{cite web|title=The Country Dance|url=http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/country-dance-jean-antoine-watteau|publisher=Indianapolis Museum of Art|access-date=31 January 2013}}

The Country Dance was acquired by the IMA in 1974, a gift of Mrs. Herman C. Krannert. It hangs in the Charles O. McGaughey Gallery and has the accession number 74.98.

• The Embarkation for Cythera

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• {{Cite book|last=Adhémar|first=Hélène|title=Watteau; sa vie, son oeuvre|others=Includes "L’univers de Watteau", an introduction by René Huyghe|publisher=P. Tisné|year=1950|language=fr|location=Paris|oclc=853537|at=cat. no. 4}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/completepainting0000watt/page/90|title=The Complete Painting of Watteau|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|others=Introduction by John Sutherland|year=1971|isbn=0810955253|last=Camesasca|first=Ettore|author-link=:pt:Ettore Camesasca|series=Classics of the World's Great Art|location=New York|at=p. [https://archive.org/details/completepainting0000watt/page/90 90], cat. no. 5|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive|oclc=143069}}
• {{cite book|first1=Émile|last1=Dacier|first2=Albert|last2=Vuaflart|title=Jean de Julienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIII-e siècle. III. Catalogue|date=1922|location=Paris|language=fr|publisher=M. Rousseau|url=http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/dacier1922bd3|oclc=1039156495|at=cat. no. 170}}
• {{Cite book|title=Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'Antoine Watteau|url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn00gonc_0|last=Goncourt|first=Edmond de|publisher=Rapilly|year=1875|location=Paris|at=p. [https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn00gonc_0/page/77/mode/1up 77], cat. no. 81|oclc=1041772738|author-link=Edmond de Goncourt|via=the Internet Archive}}
• {{Cite book|last=Goncourt|first=Edmond de|last2=Goncourt|first2=Jules de|author2-link=Jules de Goncourt|url=https://archive.org/details/lartdudixhuitieme01gonc|title=L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 1^er fasc.: Watteau|publisher=A. Quantin|year=1880|edition=3rd|location=Paris|page=[https://archive.org/details/lartdudixhuitieme01gonc/page/58/mode/1up 58]|oclc=1157138267|orig-year=1860|via=the Internet Archive}}
• {{cite book|last=Mathey|first=Jacques|title=Antoine Watteau. Peintures réapparues inconnues ou négligées par les historiens|location=Paris|publisher=F. de Nobele|year=1959|language=fr|page=66|oclc=954214682}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Posner|first=Donald|date=1983–1984|title=Antoine Watteau’s Country Dance|journal=Perceptions|volume=3|pages=27–31}}
• {{cite book|last=Posner|first=Donald|title=Antoine Watteau|url=https://archive.org/details/antoinewatteau0000posn|url-access=registration|year=1984|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=0-8014-1571-3|oclc=10736607|at=pp. 15, 18, 20, 21, 160|via=the Internet Archive}}
• {{Cite book|last=Réau|first=Louis|title=Les peintres français du XVIII-e siècle: Histoire des vies et catalogue des œuvres|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x2VYAAAAMAAJ|publisher=G. Van Oest|year=1928–1930|editor-last=Dimier|editor-first=Louis|volume=1|location=Paris|at=p. 36, cat. no. 79|language=fr|chapter=Watteau|oclc=564527521}}
• {{cite book|last=Roland Michel|first=Marianne|title=Watteau: Tutti I Dipinti|series=I Maestri|volume=19|language=it|others=Translated from the French by Marina Anzil Robertini|location=Milano|publisher=Rizzoli|at=cat. no. 5|oclc=48636176}} {{oclc|801077589}}. Published in French as {{cite book|title=Tout Watteau|series=La Peinture|location=Paris|publisher=Flammarion|date=1982|isbn=2-08-012226-6|oclc=490060827}}
• {{cite book|last=Roland Michel|first=Marianne|title=Watteau|location=Paris|language=fr|publisher=Flammarion|year=1984|isbn=9782080120205|oclc=417153549|pages=211, 306}}
• {{Cite book|last=Wyngaard|first=Amy S.|title=From Savage to Citizen: The Invention of the Peasant in the French Enlightenment|publisher=University of Delaware Press|year=2004|isbn=0-87413-853-1|location=Newark|pages=63–64|oclc=1151830852}}

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• [http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/country-dance-jean-antoine-watteau IMA page]
• {{Cite web|last=Eidelberg|first=Martin|date=November 2019|title=La Danse champestre|work=A Watteau Abecedario|url=http://watteau-abecedario.org/Danse_champestre.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017055856/http://watteau-abecedario.org/Danse_champestre.htm|archive-date=October 17, 2020|access-date=October 17, 2020}}
• [https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/w/watteau/antoine/1/00acount.html The Country Dance] at the Web Gallery of Art

{{Antoine Watteau}}

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Category:1700s paintings

Category:Paintings in the Indianapolis Museum of Art

Category:Paintings by Antoine Watteau

Category:Musical instruments in art

Category:Dance in art