Alan Wintermute: "Recently Rediscovered Paintings by Antoine Watteau"

Soon after Watteau's premature death in 1721, nearly three hundred of his paintings were engraved and published. Until recently, only about eighty of these paintings were generally thought to have survived. In just the last decade, however, a remarkable number of lost or previously unknown works have been identified, including the masterpiece La Surprise of 1718-19, now on long-term loan to The Frick Collection. This lecture draws attention to these newly rediscovered works, many of which are still in private collections, and discusses the means by which they have been identified and their attributions secured.