Watteau (revealed). Collage on original bookplates. Series of 6: Les Fausses Confidences (15x12cm), La Double Inconstance (12.5x15cm), Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard (15x20cm), Arlequin Poli par l'Amour (15x11.5cm), La Dispute (15x12cm) and L'Île des Esclaves (13.5x 20cm). 

Watteau (revealed) is more a tribute to Pierre de Marivaux than it is to Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Marivaux is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century. His work was noted for its keen observation and literary skill. His work showed the first signs of what is now called "marivaudage,"; the flirtatious bantering tone characteristic of Marivaux's dialogues. In general, Marivaux's subject matter is the so-called "metaphysic of love-making."

Jean-Antoine Watteau was one of the most influential French painters of the early 18th century. He painted numerous scenes with Commedia dell’Arte characters and also invented a type of painting known as Fête Galante: small cabinet pictures which explored the psychology of love, usually in landscape settings.

François sees through these prudish depictions and humorously reinterprets what these scenes were all about: lust, pleasure and sexual desire. The urge to do so goes back to his teens where, as an adolescent troubled by his senses and questioning his identity, Francois performed Marivaux scenes while studying drama at the Conservatoire de Verviers. He was led to interpret the thrill of love in the refined language of the 18th century. It was contradictory but nevertheless exhilarating; a silk gag on his transgressive desires, a restraint on his carnal urges.

He now uses the visual language of Watteau and combines it with Marivaux’ titles unveiling what they really hide: lustful desires! The titles, associated with his collages, add a fresh symbolic layer, opening up the possibility of new interpretations and readings of the images.