fête galanten.
/ˌfeɪt ɡəˈlɑːnt/, /ˌfɛt ɡəˈlɑːnt/, U.S. /ˌfeɪt ɡəˈlɑnt/, /ˌfɛt ɡəˈlɑnt/ An elegant outdoor entertainment, esp. as depicted by Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) and others in 18th-century French painting; (also) the genre to which paintings of these occasions belong.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > painting > painting according to subject > [noun] > paintings of other scenes
pageant1451
fire piece1592
rhopographer1730
candlelight1763
hunting-piece1765
interior1829
fête galante1851
1851 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 727/2 Watteau himself..said, when laying down his brush before a newly-finished Fête Galante, ‘There is a masterpiece.’
1912 W. Deeping Sincerity xxxvi. 268 Those stretches of grass..dreamed of for fêtes galantes.
1955 Times 16 July 8/4 The older masters in this collection included a pair of charming fête galante subjects, The Swing and The Dance, by Jean-Baptiste Pater.
1984 Print Collector's Newslet. 15 183/1 Watteau's endeavors in peasant and military subjects, in images of comedic characters, in fashion plates, and in ornamental arabesques all contributed to his innovation of the fête galante.
2000 A. Bell tr. H. Börsch-Supan Antoine Watteau 82/1 Whether this company of five people is really a fête galante, however, is doubtful. The term is usually taken to describe a larger party of people, in the setting of a park or in the open country, with pairs of lovers interacting in various ways.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1851