Les plaisirs du bal

Jean-Baptiste Pater was a French painter of the early eighteenth century working primarily in oil on canvas. He specialized in fêtes galantes and scenes of aristocratic leisure, continuing the tradition established by his teacher Antoine Watteau. His compositions feature elegantly dressed figures in parkland settings, rendered with a light palette and fluid brushwork characteristic of the Rococo period. Pater's work maintained considerable popularity among French collectors during his lifetime and contributed significantly to the codification of the fêtes galantes as a major genre of French painting.