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The Fête Galante

ca. 1772
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 641
This painting engages a complex cultural situation: in 1714, the French-descended Bourbons took control of the Spanish throne, ruling a country proud of its rich artistic heritage under the previous dynasty. Paret has adapted French painter Watteau’s amorous garden scenes to Spain by including a strolling couple that references a famous painting by Rubens and a majo, the folk character playing a bandurria that would later be one of the stereotypical images of Spain popularized by Goya. This painting was made at the height of Paret’s success at court, just before a political misstep led to his exile in Puerto Rico, where he taught his idiosyncratic enamel-like technique to José Campeche, the country’s first painter in the European tradition.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Fête Galante
  • Artist: Luis Paret y Alcázar (Spanish, Madrid 1746–1799 Madrid)
  • Date: ca. 1772
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 19 3/8 × 22 1/2 in. (49.2 × 57.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; Victor Wilbour Memorial Fund; and funds from various donors, 2025
  • Object Number: 2025.300
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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The Toilette, Luis Paret y Alcázar Spanish, Oil on wood
The Toilette
Luis Paret y Alcázar
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Rapier, Steel, blade, Spanish, Toledo; hilt, European, possibly Spanish
Rapier
blade, Spanish, Toledo; hilt, European, possibly Spanish
blade, ca. 1635; hilt, late 17th century
A Bouquet of Flowers, Clara Peeters Flemish, Oil on wood
A Bouquet of Flowers
Clara Peeters
ca. 1612
Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792), Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) Spanish, Oil on canvas
Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792)
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)
1787–88
Sheet of studies, including a Roman head, a male figure on a pyre, and a colonnade., Luis Paret y Alcázar Spanish, Pen and black ink on off-white paper
Sheet of studies, including a Roman head, a male figure on a pyre, and a colonnade.
Luis Paret y Alcázar
ca. 1766–1774

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