29) Mezzetin by Jean Antoine Watteau. It's ironic that France's second greatest painter (after Cezanne) was born out of one of my least favorite movements in all of painting. Watteau brought depth and subtlety to rococco art. A genre known for anything but subtlety and depth. Watteau's Mezzetin is at once comical, pathetic and tragic. Whenever I see him, surrounded by all the crap painted by Fragonard and Boucher, I give him an empathetic smile.
Metropolitan Museum