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He was born in the Flemish city of Valenciennes, which had just been annexed by the French king Louis XIV. His father was a master tiler. Showing an early interest in painting, he was apprenticed to Jacques-Albert Gérin , a local painter. Having little to learn from Gérin, Watteau left for Paris in about 1702. There he found employment in a workshop at Pont Notre-Dame , making copies of popular genre paintings in the Flemish - Dutch tradition.

In 1703, he was employed as an assistant by the painter Claude Gillot. In his studio he took contact with the characters of the commedia dell'arteAntoine Watteau's commedia dell'arte player of Pierrot, ca 1718-19, traditionally identified as "Gilles" ( Louvre) Commedia dell'arte ( Italian, meaning "comedy of professional artists") was a form of improvisational theater which began in the 16th centur, a favorite subject of Gillot's, and one that would become one of Watteau's lifelong passions. Afterwards he moved to the workshop of Claude Audran III , an interior decorator, where he learned to imbue his drawing with the consummate elegance that has come to characterize it. Audran was the curator of the Palais du Luxembourg, where Watteau was able to see the magnificent series of canvases painted by Peter Paul RubensPeter Paul Rubens ( June 28, 1577 May 30, 1640) was a Flemish baroque painter. He was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to a successful Protestant lawyer, who had fled Antwerp to escape religious persecution. After his father's death, Rubens and his mother retu for Queen Maria de Medici. The Flemish painter would become one of his major influences, together with the Venetian masters he would later study in the collection of his patron and friend, the banker Pierre CrozatPierre Crozat ( 1661 1740), French art collector, was born at Toulouse, one of a family who were prominent French financiers and collectors. He became treasurer to the king in Paris, and gradually acquired a magnificent collection of pictures and objets d.

In 1709Events January 12 Two-month freezing period begins in France The coast of the Atlantic and Seine River freeze, crops fail and at least 24. 000 Parisians die February 2 Alexander Selkirk is rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robi, Watteau tried to obtain the Prix de RomeThe Prix de Rome is a scholarship for students of the arts. It originated in 1663 in France under the reign of King Louis XIV as an annual reward for promising young painters, sculptors and architects, who demonstrated their excellence by participating in, and was rejected by the Academy. In 1712 he tried again, and was considered so good that, instead of getting the one-year stay in Rome he was aiming for, he was accepted as a full member of the Academy. He took five years to deliver the required " reception piece ", but it was one of his masterpieces, the Pilgrimage to Cythera, also called the Embarkation for Cythera (many commentators, however, note that it depicts in fact a departure from the island of Cythera, the birthplace of Venus, being thus a sign of the brevity of love).

Interestingly, while Watteau's paintings seem to epitomize the aristocratic elegance of the Régence (though he actually lived most of his short life under the oppressive climate of Louis XIV's later reign), he never had aristocratic patrons. His buyers were bourgeois, such as bankers and dealers.

Although his mature paintings seem to be so many depictions of frivolous fêtes galantes, they in fact display a sober melancholy, and a sense of the ultimate meaninglessness of life, that make him, among 18th century painters, one of the closest to modern sensibilities. In this he is far superior to his many imitators, like Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater , who borrowed his themes but couldn't capture his spirit. Watteau's commedia dell'arte player of Pierrot, ca 1718-19, traditionally identified as "Gilles" ( Louvre) Among his most famous paintings are Pilgrimage to Cythera (two versions), Pierrot (long identified as "Gilles"), Fêtes venitiennes, Love in the Italian Theater, Love in the French Theater, "Voulez-vous triompher des belles?", Mezzetin and his last masterpiece, painted almost at his deathbed, the Shop-sign of Gersaint.

Watteau used to alarm his friends by the carelessness he displayed about his future and his financial security. He seemed to foresee that he wouldn't live for long. In 1720, becoming ill, he moved to England for a while, looking for a better climate, but returned in worse health. He died in Nogent-sur-Marne in 1721, at the age of 37.

The Watteau dress, a long, sacklike dress with loose pleats hanging from the shoulder at the back, similar to those worn by many of the women is his paintings, is named after him.