(b Langres, 28 April 1673; d Paris, 4 May 1722). French draughtsman, printmaker and painter. He was the son of an embroiderer and painter of ornaments, who doubtless trained him before he entered the Paris studio of Jean-Baptiste Corneille about 1690; there he learnt to paint and etch. In 1710 he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale; he was received (reçu) as a history painter five years later, on presentation of the Nailing of Christ to the Cross (Noailles, Corrèze, parish church). Although he painted other elevated subjects, including a Death of the Virgin (1715; untraced) for his native Langres, he was most active as a draughtsman and printmaker specializing in theatre and genre scenes, as well as bacchanals and designs for decorations. Gillot’s principal source of inspiration was the popular theatre; he is said to have run a puppet theatre, to have written plays and once to have been in charge of sets, machinery and costume for the opera. This interest was to have a profound effect on the art of his principal pupil, Antoine Watteau (see WATTEAU, (1)), who entered his studio before 1705 but with whom he quarrelled some time before he was approved by the Académie.

• Gillot, Claude
  • France, §III, 3(iii): Painting & graphic arts, c 1620–c 1715: Royal patronage & the Académie Royale
  • assistants
    • Watteau: (1) Antoine Watteau, §1(i): Early years, to c 1708
  • patrons and collectors
    • Quentin de Lorangère
    • Tessin: (3) Carl Gustav Tessin
  • pupils
    • Joullain, François
    • Lancret, Nicolas
  • reproductive prints by others
    • Audran: (5) Jean Audran
    • Huquier, Gabriel
  • works
    • Arms and armour, §II, 2(iv): European projectile weapons, after c 1700
    • Book illustration, §III: 18th century
    • Fête champêtre, §3: 18th century
    • France, §III, 4(i): Painting & graphic arts, c 1715–c 1814: Rise of the Rococo
    • Grotesque, §4: 1601–1752
    • Strapwork
    • Theatre, §III, 3(ii)(b): France: Baroque stage design and costume