The Rest by a Fountain

A resting scene by a fountain belongs to the Rococo category of the pastoral with its associations of leisure, beauty, and the pleasures of outdoor life. Charles Joseph Natoire painted this version in 1737, now in the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, during a period of substantial production of such graceful outdoor figure subjects. The Hood Museum holds a significant teaching collection with examples of European painting from multiple periods. Fountain scenes offered painters figures in elegant repose, the visual pleasure of water and architectural ornament, and the opportunity to combine human beauty with landscape and architectural settings in a format suited to decorative use. Natoire's training in Rome would have given him direct experience of the great fountain traditions of Italian garden and urban design, and his figure types bring to such scenes the refinement of French Rococo combined with Italian formal training.

The composition combines figures in relaxed outdoor poses with the architectural element of the fountain, using water as both literal subject and light-reflective surface. Natoire's warm palette suits the leisurely subject, and the handling of flowing drapery around resting figures is fluent and practiced. The fountain's sculptural elements provide vertical formal variety against the horizontal repose of the figures.